Getting to Know You
by Taurus Versant
Summary: For every student in Class 1-A, Midoriya Izuku is someone different. Their thoughts, feelings, friendships and rivalries, they're all completely different. And how they each grow to know and appreciate him, that's different too.
1. Jirou Kyouka Has Something On Her Mind

"Hey Midoriya?"

"Jirou?"

"… nevermind."

* * *

The first time Jirou Kyouka ever acknowledged Midoriya Izuku was during the Battle Trial, their first ever lesson with All Might.

That was not the first time she had noticed him, of course not, nearly everyone had been there when Iida called the poor boy out for his muttering, back before the entrance exam began. She'd laughed as well, at the time, thinking nothing of it. Now though, seeing him fighting so desperately, she'd regretted that deeply. Midoriya wasn't someone to laugh at.

Facing down that Bakugou, who basically amounted to a living stick of dynamite, had to be terrifying. Doing so without using a Quirk to protect yourself completely ridiculous. But that was what Midoriya did, and that was how he first made his mark upon her.

His own Quirk, it was one of the strangest of them all, despite its apparent simplicity. The power it gave was unreal, Midoriya could hit harder than anyone else in their class, maybe all of them combined at full force. Yet the power hit him too, and he destroyed himself every time he used it. What sort of life do you live with a Quirk like that? Apparently the same as anyone else with their heart set upon heroism. He was here, after all.

The class took to him pretty readily after that. A lot of the more forward ones were quick to introduce themselves, to make sure he knew their names. The full story of the entrance exam, how he'd taken down that giant robot, was circling as well now, and Midoriya had rapidly gained popularity amongst his peers. Jirou watched as he attempted to deal with that.

For having the power to destroy a giant robot with a single punch, there were some real oddities about him. For starters he was the jumpiest person Jirou had ever seen before. No-one else amongst them reacted so strongly to simply being spoken to, went almost rigid when they realised someone was addressing them. It was wholly Midoriya who seemed to be so full of fear that even having someone approach him put him on guard. Something about realising that annoyed her.

That changed, over time, as the twenty grew closer through the experiences they shared. He spoke to others a lot more now, was far more comfortable when someone approached him. Sometimes he still reacted a little over-the-top, but it was a lot less often. Things were getting better for him.

Even around Bakugou he was less a stammering mess. By all appearances, life had improved greatly for Midoriya since entering U.A. That was good. But even still…

* * *

The sound of washing dishes filled up the kitchen, duty of cleaning changing for the students residing in Heights Alliance each and every day. With twenty of them living within the same building, maintenance of communal spaces had been assigned as their duty, ensuring they practised responsibility in everything they did. Today Midoriya Izuku and Jirou Kyouka had the task of cleaning after dinner. They worked with mostly quiet focus, and things got done. They were an effective team.

As the work wound down, however, Jirou exhaled loudly, attempted the conversation one more time. Hearing her, Midoriya turned to listen, and for a moment she thought how calm he was compared to before. This was better.

"Have you… spoken with Kirishima lately?"

The question was an odd one, she could see consideration cross Midoriya's face almost immediately. That alone meant he hadn't, he would have just nodded immediately then thought about it otherwise. That he was just thinking quietly, he was trying to figure out what was on her mind.

Heh, good luck.

When he did respond, it was almost long enough that it took Jirou a moment to realise what he was saying. He really did go deep into his own world of thought, huh? The soft utterance of "no" still caught her attention enough, had her turn her head to hear what he'd continue into. To enable him to surprise her as much as he did.

"Did," he seemed to be struggling with the word, struggling with the thought on his mind. She raised an eyebrow and waited. "Did you need advice on something?"

Huh?

Midoriya was incredibly easy to read the general emotions of, in an instant Jirou could see cautiousness, concern and confusion: the usual triplet of expressions he had on. Mixed in were some others that took a little more effort to parse, a slightly deeper amount of thought to him. He was clearly deeply focused on having been asked the question, and it took all of Jirou's ability to figure out just what he meant.

When she did, naturally the response was to nearly double-over in laughter.

"Pffthahahahah oh my god Midoriya," his concerned expression of 'Jirou?' did nothing to stop her, nearly toppling over now as more laughter vented. It was rare for someone to successfully set her off, but when Jirou was entertained enough she tended to laugh without being able to stop. It wasn't exactly a bad habit, but it could be a little embarrassing. She didn't really mind right now though. Eventually she managed to calm herself enough to speak again. Wow, Midoriya hadn't ever set her off like that before. Good on him. What a jokester.

"I can't believe," she had to wipe tears of mirth from her eyes, finally standing back up, "you thought I was asking for advice on Kirishima. Seriously. Kirishima. Come on."

"I-I'm not good at these kinds of things!" Midoriya was quick to stammer and try to excuse himself, to back away from the clear misunderstanding. Jirou didn't give that chance at all.

"So knowing that you thought I was asking you?" There was an incredulity to her now, a genuine surprise that Midoriya had assumed she'd come to him for relationship advice. To her surprise, a small amount of resoluteness went on to appear on his face. What was he thinking now?

"W-Well, there aren't a lot of options, maybe having someone to just talk to helps?" Hearing him answer back was surprising enough, but the response was still strange. Jirou frowned.

"What do you mean, of course there are, I could go to…" she paused, then frowned further. No, not them. Raising up a hand, she began to tap fingers and lower them as she counted through their class. Desperation grew upon her face as she neared the end of the count. Oh my god.

"Oh my god Kirishima is the only one who'd be good at advice."

"Mhm," Midoriya nodded sagely as Jirou practically stumbled out of the kitchen, crouched down in front of a wall. Mutters of 'oh my god' emerged from her as she attempted to parse this horrifying realisation, the general understanding that no-one else in their entire class possessed the ability to read the mood and understand people as well as the hot-headed fists-first self-proclaimed manly-man of Class 1-A. This was impossible. It couldn't be.

When Midoriya finished the last of the dishes, stepped outside to check how Jirou was holding up with that earth-shattering discovery, it was to find a number of the other students lined up alongside her, each equally in shock at the knowledge. He smiled slightly and reached forward, tapped the shoulder of the red-headed youth closest to him. Kirishima turned around and gave a cheeky smile.

"Everyone else was doing it, it looked like fun."

It was times like these, Jirou thought as a few of the others attempted to smother a laughing Kirishima with some cushions, that things were good. They'd all come so far, they'd all improved so much. Things were better.

Things were better, but…

* * *

"Why the hell," she'd slammed the book she'd been reading shut, caught the attention of some of the others who'd been studying in the same room, "was Midoriya such a mess at the start of the year?" Most of the others looked at her in confusion, trying to figure out the reasoning behind this statement. Kirishima though, he just sighed and closed the book he'd been working through himself. He was surprisingly good at understanding the thoughts of others.

"Jirou…" there was an almost tiredness to his voice that told her he'd been dealing with that same internal debate, probably moreso for the amount of time he spent around Bakugou. That wasn't good enough for her though. She wasn't satisfied.

"No, it's shit," there was an astounding amount of venom to her voice, surprising even her. Had she been bottling up how much this grated on her for so long? "And you know it."

"Yeah," he turned his head, not able to meet her gaze. She felt no pity or regret. "It's awful."

Bakugou was loud, crude, and more abrasive than sandpaper. His hyper-competitiveness had pretty quickly pushed him to the fringes of their class socially, and he'd seemed perfectly happy with that arrangement. Honestly, if he'd come from a different background where he'd never associated with Midoriya to begin with, Jirou wouldn't have a single problem just overall ignoring him. But thinking about that poor kid, who wanted to be a hero with all his heart and spent far too much time caring for everyone around him, thinking about him and the way he used to jump the moment someone so much as looked at him, thinking about all of that was really setting her off. She hated it.

"It doesn't matter that things've improved," she wasn't letting it drop either, kept a steely gaze on Kirishima. The others were slowly piecing together the topic, thanks to Kirishima's involvement, and were keeping a close watch on the pair. This was a conversation that had been rattling in a few minds so far. "It can't just be allowed to fade away quietly. That's not right. For either of them."

"Neither of them are going to do anything about it though," Kirishima finally did look at her, though there was no competitiveness to his face or voice, just far too much contemplation. "And you can't just force the topic on either of them, that won't do anything helpful."

Jirou exhaled in annoyance. He wasn't wrong, had obviously come to that conclusion a long time ago, but even still... even still! "It sucks and its stupid," she grumbled, giving up entirely on the book she'd been holding and letting it drop on the table. "You know that Bakugou thought he was Quirkless up until Aizawa's first test, you know things had to be even worse before that. Before they came here."

A twitch on Kirishima's brow told Jirou that he did, in fact, understand exactly that. If she'd spent the past few months with the thought percolating in the back of her mind, building momentum to this outburst of annoyance at the thought of what had been between those two, then for Kirishima it must have been a constant pressure directly on him. He was Bakugou's closest friend in their class, and also a friend to Midoriya. That couldn't be anything less than incredibly stressful for someone who felt as strongly about things as Kirishima, who wore his heart so openly on his sleeve. Even still, Jirou had difficulty feeling sympathy. Not while this was finally venting from her.

"Are they just going to ignore it?" The others were staying quiet, watching her and Kirishima but adding nothing. They understood the topic now, knew how bad it could be, and perhaps had even wrestled with it before themselves. It just wasn't something you came out and said, wasn't something to just throw into conversation. A real mood-killer.

Jirou really wasn't in the mood to avoid such, at this point.

"They can't," she continued, not losing pace. "We can't go through the next three years with that just being left on their shoulders. We can't all graduate at the end of this and that still be a thing unaddressed. It can't possibly be right to just leave it be."

"I know." He really did, she could see and hear it in everything he was saying and doing right now. Even then though, it just wasn't enough. She wasn't happy. And she knew Kirishima could see it right on her face.

"Just inelegantly dumping it on one of them isn't going to help, right?" He had her with that one, he was right. Bakugou would just flip his lid and Midoriya wouldn't even want to hear about it, would just wave it off. Neither of them would face the topic.

"But is either going to change enough to get around to it?"

"That's not up to us."

Jirou growled. Kirishima wasn't wrong there, they'd be intruding if they even said anything. They were intruding right now having this conversation. But it was still so frustrating. It shouldn't be like this. She shouldn't have this running around in her head, making itself known whenever she let her thoughts wander. No-one should.

"Look," Kirishima was sighing, brow furrowed, "I'll say something." That had Jirou pause, had her actually backtrack all the way to asking him if that was actually okay. He shook his head. "Just give it some time, okay? They're both still changing. We all are."

There wasn't anything else to say, she sighed and leaned back in her chair. Yeah, things were still changing for all of them. Hopefully for the better. She nodded to Kirishima and he visibly relaxed. Some of the others made noises of encouragement to him. One gave a calm nod to her appreciating the topic being raised. She gave a half-nod half-shrug back and reached forward, grabbing the book she'd been studying. Back to it.

* * *

The first time Jirou Kyouka ever acknowledged Midoriya Izuku, it was with the realisation that he was fighting with everything he had to become a hero. Even without realising it, he'd become a little symbol of their class, a little motivator to never give up or stop trying their best. In the few short months since those days, Jirou had already motivated herself more than once by remembering Midoriya's fight with Bakugou. Never give up, right?

The next time she passed him by, she gave him a nod of greeting and received a friendly smile in return. Way different from the first time she'd ever spoken to him, where he'd snapped to attention immediately. This was better.

Even then, when she turned back in her direction, her face was set. But it still wasn't good enough.


	2. Kouda Kouji Gets In Over His Head

Kouda Kouji was someone who had empathy in spades, at times to his own detriment. Many people would say his degree of caring was respectable, but there was always a point where he knew it was going a little too far. Always a point where he got in a little too deep.

As he slowly made his way back to his room, his jacket draped over a container, he felt a slight pang of guilt as he moved to avoid the attention of his fellows. There were only a few in the common room at the time, most distracted by one another. He kept his eyes forward and did not stray from his path. Hoped no-one was paying attention. He had to get through.

It was times like this, he would think to himself, that he really should learn to say no. It just wasn't practical. But then they'd always give him that look, and he gave in, and here he was. Again and again and again. Even moving hadn't changed that. Back in his room, Kouda sighed and placed down the container, removed the jacket.

Gave the tiny kitten room to move.

"It's just for a night or two." Yuki, the only pet meant to be in Kouda's room, continued her judging stare, reflecting all the words Kouda was attempting to ignore about not picking up every animal in need he saw right back at him. He couldn't help it though, he had to help. They helped him. It was only right.

The kitten, found on its own, mewled lightly and Kouda practically tripped over himself to make sure it was fine. Just a few nights, making sure it was all good and healthy and fine to go on before he took it to an animal shelter. He couldn't exactly raise them all, but he could help those he passed by, those in need. He should help them.

Yuki's judgemental stare continued until he provided her a piece of lettuce, occupying her attention until it was gone. In that time he'd left the room to go get some things to help with the new arrival. Just a few days. That was all.

* * *

One week later and Yuki's judgemental stares were burning a hole in the back of Kouda's head as a trio of birds chirped to one another quietly from cages, the kitten – which Kouda was doing his very best not to think of as 'Socks', the name he'd thought of after the colouration on its legs – had a playmate, and a local mouse was snacking from a little tray he'd set out for it. Why were there so many in need of attention lately, he'd never had so many back home. It seemed things were different this far into the city. Kouda didn't know what to do.

When it came down to it, his heart was just a few sizes too large when it came to animals in need. He couldn't not help and he couldn't not do it himself. They listened to him, that was his Quirk after all, and working with them he helped set animals quickly on the path to recovery and self-sufficiency. He couldn't count how many birds he'd seen go by over the years, staying with him for a few days before returning to the wild. Kittens and puppies were a sometimes thing, taken to animal care centres as soon as Kouda was confident they would be fine in such an environment. Those places lacked the personal touch, after all.

No rabbits, Yuki would go from quiet judgement to throwing a fit if Kouda brought one home, but he'd been tempted before. He knew she'd never listen if he did though. Some things just wouldn't fly, and other rabbits were so for Yuki. Probably for the best.

The real issue now was that Kouda's room was getting overloaded. Looking after all the animals he'd gathered was keeping him run ragged, and it was starting to get to his school-work. When he wasn't in class he was back here, keeping everyone happy and content, and barely managing to keep up with his studies while all his guests requested his attention. It was almost overwhelming, and Kouda would be happy once most were ready to leave. This had been a case of seriously overestimating himself. He'd need to be more careful in future.

The next day he came home with a large lizard missing a tail and one back leg, set it done on his desk, and sighed. This wasn't going to get better any sooner either.

The birds would be a good start, he considered as he set feed for them. It shouldn't be more than a few more days before they were ready to be set free, to return to the wild, and that would at least ease that burden a little. Socks – THE CAT – really should be brought to a shelter, and the other kitten should go too. Then it would just be the lizard and the occasional visiting mouse. He could do this. He just needed to make it through a few more days.

In future, he'd be far more careful not to take on more than he could handle. It was good to learn this lesson now. He nodded to himself and felt comfortable deciding such. Yes, this would be good.

Then the next day came and, while taking a walk down by a nearby river, a small cardboard box caught Kouda's eye. A suspiciously moving box. He could almost imagine the sound of the whining coming from within it. Oh no...

The way his shoulders sagged as he walked towards it, one could only imagine the weight of the world upon them for poor Kouda. If he saw animals in need he reached out to them, did what he could to make things better. It used to be easier, things were easier back home. Now though, at Heights Alliance, there just wasn't enough time, wasn't enough space. What was he even meant to do?

He stared at the box he stood before and drew a total blank on what the right thing could be. How could he make things better? He didn't know. He didn't know.

"Kouda?" To say Kouda jumped would be an understatement, the degree of height he obtained upon hearing his name called out had him rise higher into the air than he'd ever imagined he could. He landed heavily, stumbled slightly, and looked up with a shocked stare at the owner of the voice. At the one who had called out to him.

At the side of the road the river ran alongside, Midoriya Izuku had paused, the sweat on his brow a clear sign he had been out running. It was known that he exercised often, so it wasn't actually surprising, but it wasn't like Kouda knew his route either. The odds of the two running into one another, that had to be way too low. So why now? He sighed deeply and internally as Midoriya stepped off the path, moved down to join him at the river-side.

Looked at the box before the two.

"What's that?"

Bending down, Kouda opened it up, the trio of tiny puppies blinking blearily in the light. Even seeing this he could feel his heart melting, the thought of such beautiful creatures being abandoned filling him with a deep sadness. How terrible could someone be? He couldn't understand it. It just didn't make sense.

"Oh..."

Midoriya was looking over Kouda's shoulder, mouth in a thin line at the sight. He was someone who cared deeply too, Kouda knew and appreciated that, and thus he could see Midoriya's thoughts were similar to his own. About what should best be done for the abandoned puppies.

It was a moot point though, Kouda was already bending over and picking up the box before anything could be said. Midoriya made a surprised noise, but it did nothing to stop Kouda turning and walking in the direction of the U.A. Campus. He had more he needed to look after now.

"Where are you going to take them?"

With his hands full, Kouda had difficulty answering Midoriya's question as his fellow student walked alongside him. He tilted his head, gestured slightly in the direction of U.A. and hoped that got the message through. Given the expression of concern that immediately crossed his face, it seemed it had. It struck Kouda then that Midoriya was about to get very involved in this entire situation, and short of actively trying to chase him away, there was nothing much he could do about that. That caused a lot of thoughts to go through his mind, one after the other, as the two walked. A lot to think.

First Kouda thought that he really did not want Midoriya involved. Given how overwhelmed he was with his current charges, it was no doubt Midoriya would attempt to help him have less of them. But he didn't want to turn his back on those in need. That wasn't who he was. He shouldn't be made to.

The second thought was that maybe he really did need that help. He had clearly taken on far more than he could handle, and his apparent inability to stop helping every animal in need he crossed paths with was really starting to negatively affect him. Maybe outside help was the right way to go. Maybe he should just let it happen.

The third thought was guilt that he was saddling Midoriya with his problems, the fourth guilt that he wasn't able to help every animal he could. The double guilt hit really crashed his mood there, and he slowed down to a stop. The box in his arms, precious payload inside, wriggled slightly. He couldn't do this. Couldn't not help them. Couldn't properly help them either. Paralysed by indecision, Kouda stood there, trying and failing to figure out what to do. He didn't know. He didn't know.

"Kouda?" Midoriya was asking once again, looking at him with the constant expression of considering worry he usually had. He knew something was wrong, but didn't fully understand it. Kouda shook his head, but it didn't really communicate anything. Certainly didn't relieve the worries of his classmate. What should he do? What could he really do?

"Here." It was incredible, how light he felt when the box was lifted from his arms, held in Midoriya's instead. A literal weight lifted from him, but also very very figurative. He breathed out deeply and felt incredibly better, just for a moment. Then reached back for the box.

"Should we take them to a shelter?" Midoriya was still holding it, and his question caused Kouda to pause. Pause, then shake his head. The querying look in response called for an answer, and with both hands freed, Kouda gave it.

Of those in Kouda's class, Midoriya was one of the fastest on the uptake – so even if he and Kouda hadn't spoken very often, he'd still done a good job picking up the intent behind Kouda's gestures. So when Kouda signed now, he trusted in Midoriya to understand the basics behind them. A trust Midoriya upheld.

"You want to make sure they're okay first?" Kouda nodded in response, though Midoriya only frowned at that. He seemed to be deep in thought. "Don't they do that at shelters? Wouldn't they look after them from the beginning?"

More gestures, more communication.

"It's easier because you can talk to them?"

Kouda nodded and Midoriya frowned. The answer hadn't satisfied him. He didn't yet hand back the box.

"Wouldn't… animal care places likely have people who can help animals with their Quirks? I'd think… there'd have to be someone, right?"

Midoriya was right, in a way. His logical mind immediately concluded accurate solutions, but there were factors unknown that made the answer not quite what it should be. Kouda gestured but, this one was more complex. Midoriya clearly had difficulty parsing it.

"Is… it that rare?" Quirks were as varied as could possibly be, but some still fell to rarer subsets than others. First of all powers to do with healing and restoration were in absolute demand, the number who could perform such always desired to rise yet never growing fast enough. Even in hospitals across the world, the amount of people with Quirks that could help improve recovery was miniscule. Recovery Girl was a rare and very important figure. The few others in medical who could do the same similarly valued.

For healing, at the least, no one would exist in animal care when the demand for human care was still so high. So the immediate Quirk to guarantee health for animals, especially the lost and abandoned, was not available.

Kouda had learned all this years ago, studied the way Quirks that interacted with animals existed. His own, Animal Voice, was honestly of a rarer form even amongst those Quirks that allowed communication, for he could directly control animals that heard it. He'd learned, through experience many times over, that this was very useful for helping animals stay calm and relaxed to allow the recovery process to go smoothly. How many strays and injured had gone through his house over the years? So very many.

He didn't have his house here though, he didn't have his family. Alone, while seeing to his schoolwork, he just couldn't give his all to doing what he always had. And… he remembered a conversation he'd had once before. One about making a choice.

If he gave everything to caring for every animal he saw, he'd never have the chance to be a Hero. He would be a good person, he would do good deeds that amounted to perhaps more than most Heroes ever would, but he would not become a Hero in the sense that the world knows. He'd need to choose, one day, to focus on only one of those two paths. He couldn't walk both. He remembered that conversation well.

It hammered in the back of his head every day when he tried his best to do both anyway.

"Are you sure about this?" Midoriya was clearly able to see how deep in thought Kouda was falling, was giving the best chance Kouda had yet to ask for help. But even then, Kouda really couldn't bring himself to. He'd taken this on, he had to see it through. He nodded. Midoriya nodded back.

But he didn't hand back the box.

Despite every effort, Kouda found himself unable to retrieve it, Midoriya determined to escort the precious payload back to Heights Alliance. He wasn't being subtle either, and when he walked into the first floor of the building, he was immediately noticed and approached by a few of the others relaxing in there.

Kouda suddenly wanted nothing more than a Quirk to sink through the floor.

"What have you got there, Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu queried him, only to immediately place both hands over her mouth when Midoriya flipped open the lid. Apparently the sight of the three tiny puppies was more than enough to render her speechless. Kouda almost believed he could see stars dancing in her eyes.

"Yo dude, are you raising those?" Kaminari was here as well, investigating the situation. He reached a hand into the box and gently patted the head of one of the puppies, but withdrew it soon after. They were way too small and soft. Almost too much.

"I'm not," Midoriya shook his head, "Kouda's just looking after them for a little before taking them to a shelter." It was then that those investigating Midoriya actually looked up and noticed Kouda, who'd been doing his best to fade into the background. Moments later they were talking to him instead, appreciating him for his efforts. It was so good of him, they said. He was doing a good thing.

Somewhere inside, guilt piled up even higher at the thought of how close to his limit Kouda was. What should he do? He really, truly didn't know. He reached forward to take the box and Midoriya finally let him. He breathed out a sigh of relief, thinking of how he'd at least be able to get them back to his room to try and puzzle out just what he could do. At least he'd have that chance.

"Yeah!" Hagakure was here as well, which Kouda had managed to miss. Somehow she had the ability to go unseen even when fully clothed, an impressive feat all things considered. Sometimes he wished he possessed that degree of stealth. "Let's help them get settled in!"

Wait what?

There really had been no out provided, Kouda could only sigh deeply and internally as he opened the door to his room, four of his classmates surrounding him. How had it come to this? He just didn't know.

"Dude." Kaminari was the first of the four to react to the menagerie inside, to the birdcages arrayed near the window, to the lizard basking on his desk, to the pair of kittens who'd somehow managed to get onto his bed and begin wrestling one another. Yuki had sat herself on her own bed and was looking up at Kouda with such a deeply judgemental glare that he almost flinched. That rabbit had nothing but opinions.

"You might have a problem, Kouda."

Kouda couldn't help but agree with Kaminari, his room was basically a mess. For the amount of space he had available, he'd taken on way more than he could deal with.

"It's amazing that you're able to keep up with all of this." Yaoyorozu was the next to comment, her innocent remark cutting right to the core as the truth came out. For the amount of time Kouda had available, he'd taken on way more than he could deal with.

"Are you?" He flinched for real this time at Midoriya's question, tried to avoid his gaze. All that got, however, was all of them looking directly at him in worry. Unable to give much of any sort of answer, all he could do was meekly shake his head. That said enough.

"Kouda..." Yaoyorozu, Midoriya and Kaminari all wore expressions of worry on their face now, realising that Kouda was actually in too deep with his animal care exploits. Hagakure had already entered the room in order to pet Yuki, who was flipping out at the invisible touches.

"Kouda, if it's too much..." Midoriya began and Kouda rapidly shook his head, only to stop moments later and nod instead. He couldn't keep this up. He had to ask for help. He had to. It was the right thing to do.

"To start with, most of these animals are probably already fine to be taken to a shelter." Yaoyorozu was quick to settle on an intelligent solution, Midoriya and Kaminari agreeing with her. The lightning teen was already looking up local shelters on his phone, made mentions that he'd see if he couldn't get someone to come out here to grab what they could. It was true that initially a lot more attention and care could help, but after that initial phase it'd be far wiser to have the animals passed on to others. Kouda, for all his caring, had too many troubles deciding when that time came.

"Even still..." beyond even that Yaoyorozu was continuing to think, "things will just pile up again if you keep taking on this many, Kouda. It's unwise, for both you and the animals, to spread yourself so thin."

She was right, Kouda bowed his head, he couldn't even begin to dismiss that point. He'd let things get out of control, and now he was getting his just desserts. No more animals, no more care. The others wouldn't let him get into such a situation again. It was all over now.

Knowing that really upset him, even if he knew he'd done it to himself. His shoulders sagged.

"Hmm," Midoriya's voice broke the silence of thought, his head lifting to lock eyes with the others. "I have an idea."

* * *

From that day on, things became slightly more animated in the dorms of Class 1-A. A bird-cage on each of their verandas – minus a few students who had opted or been opted out – usually had at least one guest at any one time, the student in particular looking after them in charge of basic care. Animals that needed more attention, small dogs, cats and even rabbits – Yuki was fine as long as they weren't in Kouda's room – were passed between the students more regularly, kept out of trouble and under watchful eyes.

It was only a few days at a time for any one creature, before they were taken to a shelter or allowed to go free once more. Some tearful farewells were said to the especially cutest or most loved, but each of the students accepted that this was the way it was. And it was good.

For Kouda, there truly could have been no better result. There was never a time he felt bad now about bringing some injured or abandoned creature back home, knowing the others would help to care for it and would help to make sure he could say goodbye when the time came. His Animal Voice, it helped to keep things calm, and he'd even been able to spend more time with his fellow students, helping them with the care himself. His grades halted their decline and returned to normal, and he finally had a good night's sleep at last. Things were good.

When things were quiet, when he had time to think, Kouda's mind circled back to one and one thing only. One thing he was truly thankful for.

He was so thankful that Midoriya Izuku had crossed paths with him that day.


	3. Iida Tenya Values His Friendships

For Iida Tenya, friendship had not been at the top of his plans for life at U.A. He was going to take on the mantle of heroism, to be trained at the peak of schooling in the world. Certainly not for such simple things as friendship.

Yet to his own surprise, before the first week of classes were out, Iida Tenya had already formed two of the strongest friendships he had ever had. Uraraka Ochako, Midoriya Izuku, two students just like him, aiming to become heroes. Two people, he quickly realised, he respected to a degree only surpassed by his own brother.

There is an earnestness to Uraraka that cannot help but draw others to her – the majority of the class thinks of her fondly and considers her a beacon of light whenever she is around. She Iida respects deeply for he knows she will go far. He is proud to call her his friend.

When considering Midoriya Izuku, there is a range of feelings that Iida experiences. Friendship, respect, trust. Shame. Regret. …envy.

The first time he faced the true realisation of just what Midoriya was, Iida was watching a giant robot fall to the earth, felled in a single, fearless blow. Midoriya fell, all too clearly about to suffer ruinous injuries in the landing, only to be saved by Uraraka's timely intervention. The two had saved one another. They had done something truly heroic.

'If it had not been a test, of course I would have saved her'. How many times had those words emerged from the depths of his mind, how many times had they whispered in his ear to try and make the feelings disappear? If it hadn't been a test, if it only hadn't been a test…

Sometimes he sees Stain's face looking down at him, passing silent judgement over his actions. He had not been heroic then. In the test for admission into U.A, school of heroism, Iida Tenya had turned his back on the very concept he aspired to. Had watched as the one he'd expected to be nothing embodied everything he wanted to be. That crushing realisation, the moment he fully saw just what he had done wrong and they had done right, the feelings inside of him had surged into a storm of misery. He had been… so wrong. He hated it.

And what came of it? In the wake of the test, in the wake of their first lessons at U.A, he had become their friend. The days passed, the trio were around one another the most of their classmates, and Iida had felt at peace. He had found true friendship.

But when the night comes and one faces those moments before sleep, their inner demons all too often emerge. Tiring days and he escaped it, fatigue and he was free, but should he not fall to sleep immediately, then words and feelings plagued him without remorse. He was the least hero of them all. He needed to better himself. He was determined that he would.

Then the Hero Killer appeared, then his brother was injured so severely that the name Ingenium risked disappearing from the world. Then Iida succumbed to feelings that true heroes should rise above. Then he made a far worse mistake than his actions at the Entrance Exam. A mistake he was sure would haunt him for the rest of his life.

It was up to him to determine if that mistake would be motivation to never fall so far again, or simply a memory that would always make him think less of himself. The goal was the first option. The second was how things were for now.

And how did things progress from there? The next time he was called to be a hero, truly called, it had been in making a choice. Midoriya was determined to pursue the kidnapped Bakugou, Kirishima, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu with him. But that was wrong, it had to be wrong, they were just students! They shouldn't be involved, not in something like that. Iida had to stop them. That was the right thing to do.

Then he was there, with them, and the worst villain of them all was close enough to snuff them all out with one hand alone. All Might arrived. Midoriya put a plan into action. And they escaped, Bakugou in hand. For the five of them who had come out there, it had been a complete victory for them. Not a single fight, and Bakugou retrieved. It was an astounding feat.

But it was wrong! Right? There were too many opinions, too many angles. Every time Iida attempted to rationalise it, to understand and in understanding know for sure, it slipped away. Too much to hold. Too much to truly gain a single, perfect answer.

When it came to heroism, it was not just the case that Midoriya Izuku embodied it to a degree Iida could not catch, it was that Midoriya would sometimes go beyond sense, yet end at a heroic conclusion all the same. It was not that Iida Tenya could not keep up, it was that at times he could not even understand what was taking place. To be so far behind, to be so removed from the ideals he kept, that Midoriya was such a reminder of that...

Sometimes, in his weakest moments, Iida thinks that if Midoriya were not one of the best friends he had ever had, he might hate him instead. But those demons, those weaknesses of self, they never last. When Iida is besides him he does not think of failing, he does not think of never being good enough. He only sees room for improvement, ways to be better. Just as Midoriya does.

They are both here to be heroes, after all.

* * *

"Hey Iida?"

"Midoriya?" The sound of Hatsume Mei thrashing in the background, selecting what best inventions to test upon the trio visiting the Development Studio, did nothing to mask Midoriya's request, nothing to hide Iida's immediate swirling thoughts. For Midoriya to shift his focus to his legs, to use them as his main form of attack, it made complete sense. And to ask Iida about it... of course that did too.

Even still, Iida couldn't help but feel some measure of pride in being able to assist his friend. He was still able to do such things.

Midoriya was changing too, seeking betterment. Indeed, the path to heroism had barely just begun for them both. There was still much to do.

"First, you'll want to get used to swinging your legs, like so."

* * *

The sound of their footfalls was heavy on the ground, Midoriya and Iida side by side. Each could definitely push the other forward, but the action and the exertion was the true purpose of this run. To keep pace with one another, that was enough. For now.

Somehow each knew the other would start to accelerate, once the finish line drew near.

The city was good to run in, working their way down less crowded paths. The surfaces under their feet changed often, necessitating adaptation, and Iida enjoyed seeing the world around him. Moving at speed, parsing their surroundings at speed, it was all good practise. Midoriya took to it well, and joined him on his runs, now and again. This was the first time, however, since he'd asked Iida about changing to use his legs more than his arms in battle.

Iida could see on Midoriya's mind not his surroundings but thoughts of how to better himself in this too. It was a surprise that a stream of mumbling was not being left in the wake of Midoriya's run. Maybe he just knew he might end up with a bug in his mouth if he opened it at this speed.

"HELP!"

The two veered in an instant, words unspoken as they honed in upon the scream. Their footfalls were loud, their arrival on the scene quick, but the two before them, down a side alley, did not notice their presence. Each too busy with the other.

It was difficult to understand the entirety of the situation, the back of the one approaching the retreating woman to the pair. The appearance was pretty obvious though, the first threatening the second. Midoriya took a step forward.

Iida's hand settled heavy on his shoulder.

"We don't have our Provisional Licenses, Midoriya." Iida could see the disappointment mingle with awareness on his face – picking fights, performing heroism, only the professionals could do such things. But still, this scene, how could he...

Iida couldn't help but smile at the despondency on his friend's face as he raised his phone to his face. Sometimes you just had to leave things to the pros.

"REPORTING A CRIME!"

Midoriya jumped at the volume of Iida's voice, but that was nothing compared to the two further down the alleyway. The woman had jumped even further back, while the man before her rounded with a snarl towards them, only to come to a dead stop as recognition crossed his face. The Sports Festival had made their names and faces public, plenty of people they passed by on the streets waved to them. No waves this time. No smiles.

Iida could almost see the blood draining from the man's face as he finished delivering his report, as a notification of the criminal would reach the police. Now there was a time limit, what would he do within it? No way to get out past Midoriya and himself, after all.

Of course he turned around then, rounded on the woman behind him. The alley was blocked by a fence, but anyone with determination would make it over it. He'd probably just run.

Then he seized the woman, dragged her around in front of him, and positioned a hand in front of her neck.

The way Midoriya immediately stilled, the look that crossed his face, Iida was almost stunned by it. It took a moment, wracking his mind, for Iida to realise just what it was Midoriya was reacting so strongly to. This one's Quirk, clearly applied through their hand, it was delivered the same way Shigaraki Tomura's would have been. Of course seeing the same motion, the same positioning, would cause Midoriya to react. It would be incredible if he didn't.

His breathing was ragged as the man ordered them to back up, as he took menacing step after step towards them, forcing the woman forward. She was breathing heavily as well, though her face showed less fear than Iida would have expected either. Still, he couldn't help but feel the pressure in the situation as he retreated, as he and Midoriya stepped to the side. They needed to stall, to give enough time for the police to arrive. What was the best course of action?

As the man and woman stepped past them, Iida's breath caught. He stared at the pair, unsure of the situation, as he continued to not breathe. Midoriya, opposite him, had a wide-eyed expression that said the same. Neither had breath to breathe.

Then the man was flying upwards, propelled at incredible speed. As Iida and Midoriya gasped for breath, as the woman skipped forward, the man crashed back to the ground with clearly painful force. He did not stand back up.

"Sorry!" The woman bowed quickly to the two, face slightly red in the aftermath, "I needed the breath of multiple people to send him flying and I couldn't take his without him noticing! Thank you for saving me!"

Iida couldn't help but smile as Midoriya quickly told her she was incredible, complimented her Quirk and her calm nature under pressure. Was she a hero? She should be. Her response was to redden even further and wave it off, saying she couldn't possibly be. Even by the time the police did arrive to collect the criminal, interviewed the three and then offered the woman a ride home, Midoriya had not backed off the thought of her being a hero. Iida couldn't help but shake his head.

"Let's go," he clapped a hand on Midoriya's shoulder again and his friend nodded in agreement. Heavy feet hit the pavement and the two continued on.

The world was vast and complex, heroism an ideal impossibly difficult to solve in a single sentence. But it was an ideal the two kept and an ideal the two chased.

As they ran, Iida made sure not to forget this either. Sometimes heroism meant simply being there for those in need. His time here and the friends he made had taught him that already.


	4. Tokoyami Fumikage Knows Trust's Value

Trust is not something to give lightly.

Tokoyami Fumikage knows this well, knows that trust is a blade you give to another despite the risk it poses you alone. That those who wish you harm could tear you apart with it in an instant. Those darker demons that lurk inside others, should one arm them so?

Not lightly.

He remembers the first time Midoriya Izuku came to stand before him, the first true contact they had. They had known of each other before that point, of course, but this was the first time he saw it in the eyes of the one who would soon become both friend and staunch ally.

When Midoriya Izuku asked Tokoyami to join him in the Human Cavalry Battle, he did so with eyes full of trust immediately given. How else could one answer to such earnestness? For a brief moment, the shadows of doubt rescinded.

Even today he remembers those moments, that battle fought together. Midoriya had trusted in him and he had trusted in Midoriya and those with him in return. The quartet had struggled, fought against the odds, and snatched victory back from the jaws of defeat. Trust given and well rewarded.

From that day on, Tokoyami had observed Midoriya more closely. He had watched that boy grow into his powers, grow into his confidence, and take up one of the forefronts of their class. Too often, when events and trouble were coming to pass, was Midoriya right in their midst. Of course he was.

Tokoyami had learned to trust that he would always be there.

* * *

"It's a good idea!"

"It's a terrible idea."

Ashido pouted, staring down Kaminari with a disapproving glare. He managed to ignore it, mostly, faking paying attention to the open book in his hand. Ashido reached forward and snapped it shut.

Members of Class 1-A could always be found relatively close to one another on campus, it was rare to catch one totally separated from another. When it came to study they'd group together, smaller groups but groups nonetheless, and take up various places. Today it was four, Ashido and Kaminari, alongside Midoriya and Tokoyami himself - the first two busier talking amongst themselves than studying. Midoriya and Tokoyami were keeping mostly silent, attempting to study and listening without being able to help themselves. It was just interesting enough, after all...

"Listen," Kaminari put down the book on the table, folded his hands and looked Ashido square in the face, "I am the last person who should be saying no to the idea of a party, I love parties and we should totally have one. But you can't just say 'let's have one tonight' and expect it to actually happen. You know this. I know you know this."

"Everyone would be into it!" Ashido frowned, putting a foot down, the book she should have been reading discarded on the table as well. "Between us all we can make anything happen anywhere anytime, it'd be easy!"

Tokoyami rolled his eyes as the two continued debating the pros and cons of the idea of an immediate surprise party, making brief eye contact with Midoriya in the action. A small laugh was earned in response to the action.

That, unfortunately, was enough to have Ashido round on Midoriya with fire in her eyes, determination to see her plan to success lit within them. "Mido, you're good at plans!"

Her habit for nicknaming everyone around her was marred slightly by her changing most of them at least once a week – Tokoyami had gone from 'Toks' to 'Koya' to 'Shadows Birdman' over the past month already. Midoriya had managed to keep 'Mido' for a while though. She seemed fond of that one. "Surely you could figure out how we could all have a party as fast as possible!"

"Uhhh." It wasn't that Midoriya couldn't do it, if he really thought about it he could come up with the plan, he just needed to think of it like any challenge or opponent. Ashido's enthusiasm was kind of overwhelming him though, and no plans were taking shape as he leaned back. Tokoyami had expected as much. Whatever mad banquet Ashido had planned, it wasn't taking off tonight. Obviously.

"C'mon Ash, leave 'em be." Seeing Kaminari take the role of voice of reason was usually enough to have anyone on edge, but it quickly became apparent his goal was, in fact, to get this party happening. Just, actually happening, not announced and then a failure because there wasn't nearly enough time to plan it. Ashido continued to frown.

"We could do it." There was more of a whine to her voice now, Kaminari shaking his head. Usually the two were constantly egging one another on, but it seemed the idea of a party had actually genuinely settled in Kaminari's mind now. He started giving ideas, trying to cheer the despondent Ashido up, and the two settled into talks after all. Soon enough they had an idea for something to happen later this week. And there they went, off to plan, leaving the two alone.

Midoriya sighed deeply.

"If only they motivated each other so much for anything but trouble." The line was a joke and Midoriya knew Tokoyami enough to chuckle slightly at it. The two relaxed.

The more boisterous members of their class were often fun to be around, but exhausting after a while. Tokoyami had learned to appreciate their presence but also that of those quieter. Naturally Midoriya numbered amongst the second set.

"It should be fun though," Midoriya was ever the optimist, contagiously so in fact. Tokoyami found himself nodding without thinking. But as stress piled upon the twenty, it was up to them to find ways to resist it. Something like this... would do as much.

"A grand gathering of unyielding personalities." An unquestionably true statement, Tokoyami knew his fellows well enough by this point. Midoriya just laughed a quiet laugh. A rare one, Tokoyami had learned.

There were many ways he reacted to others, a simple human truth. Observation was in learning which ways he reacted to which people, and Tokoyami had spotted that many times over. He knew Midoriya was most relaxed around Iida and Uraraka. He knew he was guarded and careful when under Bakugou's sights. He knew he was always watching for trouble around Mineta. He knew he was always thinking extra hard when speaking to Todoroki or Yaoyorozu.

Tokoyami knew that, around him specifically, Midoriya was most likely to laugh in that specific way, that quiet peaceful laugh. It was almost never his intent, but the ease with which it came had become something of an enjoyable trait for Tokoyami. He was never upset to hear it.

The first time Midoriya Izuku had truly approached Tokoyami, it was with eyes full of trust. Tokoyami could do nothing but honour such honesty, and gave his own trust in return. Let the two rely on one another when in need. He'd promised that then and taken that will into battle.

Now, looking back, Tokoyami could relax even when considering his failures, but that did nothing for what he had felt at the time. He hadn't even had the time to truly apologise.

From the moment where he was spirited away alongside Bakugou, out there in those woods, he had been able to do nothing. No, even before that, he'd fallen into a trap he'd skirted so many times before, nearly been consumed by his own Quirk. Others had saved him then. Then saved him again before he was truly taken like Bakugou had been.

He'd failed their trust then and the moment was so far gone that there was no apologising for such a thing. The next time he saw Midoriya it had been with everyone else, the first time that boy was truly awakening from his wounds. Barely a moment had passed then, and Midoriya had disappeared with others to save Bakugou. It was unquestionable the amount of trust involved between them in that arrangement. Tokoyami could clearly tell how much had been needed.

He was still positive he could not have met the same expectations. That was the failing haunting him, his own demon of the night that lurked in the darkness of his head. For a batch of first years, so much trauma had already circulated – truly a U.A. Education was nothing to sneeze at.

He wanted to laugh at that joke he'd just thought, but it really, truly, wasn't funny. He frowned.

"Tokoyami?"

Midoriya was dangerously perceptive. Tokoyami shook his head, said nothing of his thoughts, and raised the book in his hands once more. Momentary breaks from study meant you had to return to such after all. The movement he heard told him Midoriya had done the same. This was good.

Tokoyami was not sure if he could ever completely repay the trust he had been given, without question or concern, when Midoriya had asked him to fight by his side. But he knew Midoriya and knew he would not regret following him. The path to their futures was walked by twenty right now, and how they'd all change was a mystery even the greatest of Quirks could not divine. But that was a fine thing, and Tokoyami was ready to face whatever unreasonable future raised its head. As long as he had those besides him he could trust in.

Tokoyami Fumikage knew that trust was not something to be given lightly, but knew also that when given it should be honoured to the absolute. He and Midoriya had found a mutual trust, could rely on one another, and he knew he'd not break that for as long as he lived. That was who he was.

U.A. truly brought unexpected meetings and challenges. But those Tokoyami would rise to and overcome on his path to heroism, the same path they all walked. That was his belief.

"Hey!" Ashido stuck her head back through the doorway, waving rapidly at the pair still seated at the table, "You two aren't off the hook! Come help us plan!"

Midoriya's shoulders slumped as Tokoyami sighed. Whatever hellish trials lay ahead.


	5. Ashido Mina Is The Life Of The Party

"Hey Mido, keep it together!"

"Right!"

From her podium, a hastily stacked set of crates and a folded plastic table, Ashido Mina ruled the world. She could see Tokoyami shifting out more tables, his Dark Shadow assisting in their movement. She could see Midoriya Izuku putting the decorations she'd chosen, hand-chosen mind you, up around the room. She could see Kaminari energetically chatting to Yaoyorozu instead of helping. Grabbing a pack of disposable cutlery, she perfectly nailed him on the head. He yelped and got back to work. That's right.

"This is going to be perfect! You'll see! You'll all see!" Ironically villainous statements were the in-thing right now – you couldn't go through a training exercise without Sero whipping out a 'now you'll witness my true power!' or Kirishima exclaiming 'How could I be defeated by the likes of you?' after test results came back. Tsuyu once dropped 'Join me and we can rule together' when they were getting paired up for a project and Ashido swears it's the funniest thing she'd ever heard. Really, she can't express how much she loves her classmates, barring one or two sour grapes. They're the best friends she's ever had.

"Hup!" Still, it's not quite like she knows them all perfectly yet. Or she's gotten through to them all. Chill is definitely the way things are, but even still, there's those moments. When Kouda looks completely awkward in a social environment when she's just talking. When Uraraka seems a little out of it if heroism's the subject on the table. When Sero misses a joke and just freezes up. Little things.

The way Midoriya jumps when you surprise him, that was one of those too. Even if he'd known everyone in the room, even if he knew it was just them, still landing right next to him when he didn't see it coming caused him to freak. Not a lot, just a little, but it was still obvious. He'd crouched slightly, backed up as he turned around, then seen her and relaxed. Ashido smiled brightly.

"No slacking now!" Usually it was Midoriya playing the leader in team-activities, he had a surprisingly good head for it. Not so much for party-planning and decoration though, that was all her domain. Sure he'd helped out by suggesting the best people to help, but actually getting everything moving? That was all her, baby. Good teamwork, best usage of everyone's skills.

You're meant to learn that at U.A., right? So party planning totally counts as a teamwork exercise! Definitely, unarguably. That was her logic.

Now just as long as no-one questioned it.

"Hey Ash, when does Sero get here?"

She'd tasked Sero with a secret, last-minute job, and while Kaminari didn't know exactly what it was, he did know she'd sent him out. He'd absolutely demanded they have basically everything ready two days before party-time to make sure it happened and while that was a total drag – seriously, where was the spontaneity she knew he had in him – she'd gone along with it. Midoriya had backed him up and those two on a wavelength were surprisingly good at getting people to follow along. Charisma in determination, she guessed.

"He'll be here soon!" A text she'd received earlier confirmed he'd met up with Satou and the two were on the move, collecting the secret supplies she'd arranged for. Oh, an Ashido Mina party doesn't just resemble any old party, it was a thing to shake both heaven and earth. So yeah, maybe having had an extra day or two to really plan it had made it better. She guessed.

This was a Class 1-A party and she intended to see it a success. Everyone had been invited, because they were all Class 1-A, and it was going to be a great time! Even if someone might have to put Mineta on a leash. Even if it was ninety-percent odds Kirishima would show up sans Bakugou plus explosion damage. Whatever, it'd be great! She knew it.

As the room took on a proper party-shape she spun and smiled, revelling in her empire. Yes, this was her domain now, her party-world. This was going to be great. She just knew it.

* * *

"Seriously?"

Kirishima shrugged, predictably sans Bakugou. Even if she'd suspected it, Ashido couldn't help but be amazed. Seriously, what an ass.

"Can't help you, Ash. Asked him to come, he said no. That's the lot of it." Kirishima folded his arms after giving the explanation, Ashido's glare burying right into him. He wasn't giving the full story, she could tell that in an instant. Lover's quarrel? There was nothing public about them or anything but, she knew. Ashido knew love when she saw it. Or rather, assumed it as soon as there was even the slightest hint available.

That was part of the fun, wasn't it?

Kirishima sighed. "Hey, nineteen out of twenty is still pretty good, right?" He gestured to the room and directed her gaze, had her consider what was taking place. Yaoyorozu had managed to convince Sero to tape Mineta to the ceiling, Kaminari and Hagakure nearby almost paralysed by laugher. Todoroki was being an anti-social butt in the corner and she was going to get to him in a minute. A clump of the others were having a discussion about something over by a food table, what it was she couldn't quite tell. Iida was emoting heavily though so probably something boring and not fitting for a party. Oh, so many things to do to keep everything lively. The role of the party goddess was a tough one.

Every now and again she saw Satou give a nervous glance around the room. Sero was too busy messing around to worry, but he and Satou were the only two aware of her secret score. But they also knew to keep her secret. The party would kick into high gear soon enough. Just not yet.

"Go have funnn," she pushed Kirishima off in the direction of the smaller group with a smile, insisting he just relax. He let himself be sent off by her, and was soon cracking jokes with Kaminari, Sero and Hagakure – an amused but quiet Yaoyorozu standing by. Mineta seemed to be amusing himself while attached to the ceiling, probably perving from above. She'd get him later.

Todoroki was kind of a mixed-bag, sometimes warm and friendly, sometimes kinda cool and distant. That… basically matched up to his Quirk, now that she thought about it, but Quirk to personality stuff was the talk of people who didn't know a damn thing about others. It didn't matter.

What mattered was that a) he was being a big aloof no-fun baby and b) she needed to put a stop to that right now. If he thought that accepting the invitation was the end of it oh he had another thing coming. This party was for everyone! There'd been more than enough stresses and strains lately, and Ashido had taken it upon herself to make sure everyone was finally able to unwind from that. So it was time to get to work.

By getting someone else to do it.

"Hey Mido, get over here!"

'Mido' was a nice and quick nickname, but not very fun. Now and again she'd flirted with the idea of using 'Deku' like Bakugou and Uraraka – though they both used very very different interpretations of that name – but ultimately decided she didn't really want to be the third wheel in that one. Or… fourth wheel? Whatever, it didn't matter. Anyway 'Mido' was nice but she needed to put some thought into a new and fun nickname to give him, this one had overstayed its welcome. She'd figure it out. Later. Tonight was party-time for everyone. And given that…

"Ashido?"

He had that querying tone that always sounded slightly worried, like he was in trouble the moment someone addressed him. So messed up. She smiled brightly. "Need your help little buddy," she leaned in, whispering conspiratorially and ignoring the part where he was actually a little taller than she was. "See we've got a sourpuss at this party who's having no fun at all, and that's no good, see?"

Midoriya kind of looked at her blankly and leaned back from her having leaned forward. "I-I'm having fun!" He seemed ready to protest, but piped down when she rapidly raised a finger up in front of his lips. Honestly.

"No, not you silly," she waved her hand, gesturing to the side, "him." Midoriya followed Ashido's hand to look over to where Todoroki was hanging around, nursing a plastic cup of soda. Honestly what a brooder.

"Oh." Todoroki actually looked up, made eye contact with the pair, and Ashido waved energetically at him, receiving a slightly startled and honestly very weak wave in return. Seriously.

"I don't know what his deal is but you need to go talk to him, alright? Mr. 'Sure, Ashido, I'll help you plan this party and make it run as smooth as it can, no problem'." She smiled brightly and abstained from either mentioning or remembering that Midoriya's only statement when she asked him to help was 'sure'.

"R-right." Midoriya let himself be pushed by Ashido and walked over to Todoroki, who at the very least did this party the dignity of straightening up and talking to him. Good. Those two awkward boys could be slightly less awkward together and do a little more for the life of the party. Honestly, it was an almost impossible challenge for the recently, unofficially, crowned queen of party. But she had the plans for that, oh yes indeed. Soon enough.

The party continued as people moved about, copious amounts of party-food was eaten, Kaminari and Jirou were chased away from the sound-system no less than five times between the two, and Yaoyorozu started making prisms for Hagakure to do light-shows through. Midoriya had succeeded in getting Todoroki hanging with the others, although it seemed more like a few of them had actually drifted towards him, and that was good too. Everyone here should enjoy themselves. That was the point.

After all, they'd been through so much recently.

As she took a long sip of her own drink, Ashido found herself actually thinking about how things had been. She tried to live in the moment as best she could, but that didn't mean once in a while you didn't catch yourself looking back. It sure had been a time, hadn't it? Lot of things. Lot of stresses. Lot of happenings.

Lowering the cup, she actually found herself focusing on the small group Midoriya was amongst, and him in particular. He was one of the central characters of it all, wasn't he? Always standing out with his power, before and after he figured out how to stop breaking his bones when using it. Had that run-in with the villain in the mall. Was right there in the Bakugou rescue mission. Out of all of them, he was definitely top three for stress, no doubt.

Didn't really show it though. Sure he was always kind of a little on edge, but that seemed like a personality thing he'd developed over the years. But look at what everyone had gone through, the villain attacks, U.A.'s intensity, the rise of the entire Villain Alliance and fall of All Might, and suddenly it felt a little weird that Midoriya seemed, mostly, the same as always. He didn't really have the personality to laugh it off and go on, so what was the deal there?

Hmmmmm…

"Hey Ash, when's the big reveal?" Sero's hand, clasped on her shoulder, startled her from her thoughts and she nearly dropped the, thankfully empty, cup she was holding. He wore a big stupid smile for stunning her and she resisted a sudden urge to put her hand right over his face in retaliation. Oh she'd get him later too. He'd see.

"You think they're ready?" A wicked conspiratorial grin crossed her face now, matching Sero's own. They were the only two to know – while Satou had helped with the collection, he hadn't actually gotten a good look at the score. Just these two troublemakers, aware of just what was about to happen. Oh it was great.

"No-one's ever going to be ready," Sero was smirking right back at her, "doesn't mean we shouldn't do it though." Welp, that seemed like a good enough endorsement, Ashido's villainous grin only grew wider as she strode over to one specific table, grasped the tablecloth upon it, and ripped it away.

It wasn't really a table in truth. Unlike the rest she had set up, this was just a wooden board atop two barrels, delivered by Sero and Satou earlier. Pleased that no-one had noticed this was the one table with no food kept on it, she pushed the board over to fully reveal just what it was she had here. Time to kick this party into high-gear.

Speaking of high-gear, Ashido couldn't help but be impressed by how quickly Iida had responded to this reveal – he'd already put a foot down on each barrel, stood himself atop them. She looked up at him just in time to be blasted by disapproval. Oh here we go.

"Ashido, I cannot BELIEVE you!"

Rolling her eyes did nothing to dissuade Iida, as he immediately launched into the ultimate of all tirades at how ridiculous and irresponsible she was, bringing such a thing to a party of minors. She looked across the room instead, from Sero's thumbs up to the majority's blank and shocked stares. Still somehow attached to the ceiling, Mineta looked like he was freaking out in excitement, his imagination clearly already having gone wild. Gross.

"Hey Iida!" Sero cupped his hands and managed to get his voice through Iida's rant, causing ol' Prez to pause for just a moment. Sero didn't lose his smile. "What's in there, actually?"

Slightly confused, Iida hopped down and Ashido struck. She was quick, one hand had already settled on and pulled the lid off of one of the two barrels. A scandalized Iida yelled at her in shock, but quickly followed her gesturing hand to actually look. Moments later he went completely silent.

Everyone had gathered up around them, wanting to know exactly what was going. Iida, now well aware, could only silently lift and display a single piece of the barrel's stock. Ashido's smile went wider still.

"Gummy-worms?"

Sero completely busted a gut, doubling over in absolute laughter at the sheer confusion in Iida's voice as he displayed the candy to the room. Ashido meanwhile had her arms spread wide, victory written across her face. Oh this was the best.

"The good high-quality stuff!" Having Sero being the only one in the know was the best; the shock on the faces of everyone gathered here was something else. Actually Satou and Yaoyorozu looked interested more than surprised, which made sense given both of their Quirks took a lot of food energy. This was good stock.

Come to think of it… Satou had been the one who helped bring the barrels in, though Sero swore he'd given no clues about what was in them. Given how nervous he'd been acting earlier, did he actually think she'd gotten two barrels of alcohol? He'd still helped bring them in though. Huh…

Satou Rikidou, secretly a badass at partying? She filed that one away for later.

"We're kicking things up a notch!" Pretty much no-one had any idea what she was up to, even Kaminari looked more confused than anything else. These little eggs, not yet able to comprehend the true form of partying, she'd teach them yet, or she wasn't the very aspect of partying herself. Which she definitely was. Yep. No question. "Who's ready for a game?"

Things kind of hazed out after that. Continuing to insist the candy be worked into every challenge and game possible, whether as punishment or reward, the others followed her unknowing of the world they were stepping into, of the sugar highs to come.

Over the next few weeks sporadic memories of the night came to her, piece by piece, everyone remembering things a little differently and not really wanting to talk about it. They had to spend the next day fixing the room up from damages, so things had definitely gotten wild, but she wasn't entirely sure how wild. Yeah, an Ashido Mina party don't stop til the occupants drop, those are her rules.

Maybe she should dial it back a bit next time though… nah.

One memory did come to her a few weeks later, as she was lying out under the sun enjoying its rays. It had been late in the night, or early in the morning, of the party, and things had kind of slowed down. While Yaoyorozu and Satou couldn't really be stopped, their bodies actually able to deal with that sugar intake, a lot of the others were slowly becoming sugar zombies. Some of the more boring people had bowed out, but others had taken her challenges and fallen into her stride. Lived up to the ideal of partying. She was proud of them.

She remembered Midoriya handing out drinks of water to everyone, a) not really party drinks but b) actually responsible and probably helping people keep going. So that evened out. She'd caught up with him, delivered about a million sugar-fuelled question, then not bothered listening for any of the answers. Guess she hadn't managed her intake herself. Whoops.

In thinking about that, trying to remember specifics, one thing did come to mind though. One question she'd asked. Weird that it was that specific one, but it was what she remembered clearest now. Huh.

"Hey Mido," she'd sat herself atop the already emptied barrel, over-turned since they'd lost the lid. That alone should have stunned her, for one to have already been emptied, but she'd been too distracted by the party magic in the air to care. "What's the deal with All Might?"

She wasn't entirely sure why she'd asked it – she knew the recent events had been in her head, but what had prompted that was lost in the haze, just that she knew he'd have the answer. He'd practically flipped his mind when she did ask though, started stammering out like five things at once. Had she nearly stumbled upon secrets in her sugar-addled state? Hm.

The point of the question though, she'd asked him at the time, was why All Might had been the ultimate. Sure he was the strongest and most charismatic, but there had to be something more to make him what he was. Mido was the ultimate All Might fanboy after all, he had to know. Totally.

His answer to that had been long and rambly, she'd phased out for most of it, but there was one specific part of that she could recall, word for word. She got the feeling she might never forget it now.

"He needed to be the Symbol of Peace. And… he wanted to be."

Need and want, mix them together and put them to the right goal, you get a hero. Something about that resonated to her. She remembered that line and she remembered her response to that. Remembered comparing Midoriya's own dedication to All Might's.

"Mightoriya," she rolled the nickname in her mouth, but stored it away all the same. One day for sure she'd sling it at him and watch him redden up, but not yet. Still a long way to go for all of them.

A lot more parties first, that was for sure.


	6. Todoroki Shouto's Bad Luck With Mirrors

There's an old saying that if you break a mirror, you'll be cursed with seven years of bad luck. If that's the case, Todoroki Shouto entered U.A. believing he'd live a cursed life. Maybe alone that would have been true.

The first break was after he'd been marked, after everything had changed. Of course he'd been stressed, afraid, saddened by his treatment, by his training, but the deep rage had not yet been ignited. Not until his skin had burned, not until those eyes had looked into him and seen only his father. Only then had he been broken.

He remembered it even now, couldn't forget it in truth. The day he left the hospital, the day he stood before a mirror and unwrapped the bandages for the first time. The day he saw how he'd look for the rest of his life and his father's eyes staring back at him. The first day he'd destroyed a mirror.

His father had nothing negative to say about the outburst, for the strength of the flame that had raced up around him as he lashed out had been something new. Good, that stress would push the boy further, make him stronger than ever before. If he had to destroy a room once in a while to grow, there was nothing wrong with that. He had the room repaired and never said a word of it. Shouto hated it and hated him.

From that day, Todoroki Shouto had vowed to disown his father, to never use the Quirk inherited from that monster. He'd kept that promise as well as he could, mastered his ice to a far greater degree, but there were moments he slipped, moments his emotion took hold of him. The loneliness he'd enforced upon himself kept them private, few knew of them, but they were still there. They still haunted him.

Now and again, when he looked into a mirror and saw his own face, he saw flashes of others – of his father, of his mother, their expressions both so different, both so haunting. As rare as they were, rarer still were the times his emotions were so taut, his mind so strained, that he would lash out. Yet still they were there.

And every time, even against his own will, those outbursts were flame, not frost.

Endeavor never said a word of it and he hated that. Every time he destroyed a mirror, the collateral more than often ruining the entire room, the next time he would pass it by it would be repaired. His actions ignored. Valued even, though of course his father would never admit that. But each time he strayed to the flame, that was a sign his power was still great within him. That appeased the man that had created him to become the ultimate being who could surpass All Might.

And Todoroki Shouto hated it with all of his heart.

The last mirror he broke was the day before the Sports Festival of U.A. His father had come to him and demanded he throw everything into it, prove to the entire world his strength. For all of Shouto's rejections, seeing the flame that wrapped around his father, it set a deep fury within him, a fury he couldn't contain. He destroyed the next room he saw himself in, then vowed that would be the last time that flame appeared. He'd make his announcement in ice, break from his father, and finally be free. Todoroki Shouto would no longer be bound by the one known as Endeavor. That was his declaration. That was what he set out to do.

Then, against his own will, as Midoriya Izuku's hand reached out towards him, Todoroki's flames arose.

The feelings in that moment, he remembered them well. He hadn't been thinking, his body had simply responded to the threat he felt, and the fire had lit. It was always that case, the fire drawing more from uncontrollable feelings, but it was the first time it had responded to that specific feeling – the feeling of danger that Midoriya produced.

Danger. From Midoriya Izuku. Oh sure, he had incredible power, as much as it came at a cost, but the person he himself was, it really shouldn't have been the case. Midoriya was polite to a fault, awkward as all get out, and way too jumpy when approached. Until you pushed him.

He really should have expected it. He'd seen Midoriya in the Battle Trial, seen his power and determination. He'd seen him during the Villain Invasion at USJ, the strength he'd expressed. Hell, he'd been overtaken by Midoriya in the race just hours before their first clash. All those moments where Midoriya wasn't panicky, wasn't uneasy, wasn't holding himself back.

Then he saw that hand reaching out to him and felt in it a power that honestly made him quake. Thus the flames arose.

So he made a choice then, declared Midoriya a rival to his face. Their fight, Todoroki would be sure to settle everything there. He wouldn't be overcome by Midoriya and he wouldn't be bound by the will of his father. He'd free himself from those chains, without question. Those heavy chains he had felt weighing him down from the day his Quirk first wrapped him in fire and ice.

Those chains that Midoriya seized with his own two hands and broke into pieces without Todoroki standing a chance.

Sure, he'd won. By the standard metrics. And sure, he'd lost to Bakugou at the end. Honestly though, when that battle concluded, Todoroki already felt outside of winning and losing. Like he'd been changed so much that the person competing in this wasn't who he really was. It wasn't until he'd faced everything, looked at himself in a mirror and seen only himself, that he'd been able to truly understand and return to reality. Only then that he could go and see her again.

He thinks about those moments almost every day, going over them in his mind in times of silence. You don't spend over a decade of your life filled with such complex anger and suffering only to have it all disappear from your mind the moment things change. The road to recovery, to a new and better self, Midoriya had all but punched him directly onto it, but it was still a road he needed to walk. Sometimes you're still haunted by your past. Sometimes you just need to think.

Sometimes Todoroki looks into a mirror and almost wants to break it again, for old times' sake, but he never does. He was different to the person who would lash out like that, not free but healing.

That didn't change his luck though.

* * *

"Woah!"

Midoriya's lunge had sent him practically bouncing off the floor as his hands grasped the bottom of the falling mirror, his tight grip keeping it from hitting the ground. A few moments too slow to catch it after it fell from the wall, Todoroki had at least been able to reach down and grab Midoriya under an arm, keeping him slightly off the ground himself. It took a few seconds for the immediate adrenaline to fade and for Todoroki to let Midoriya down, to grab the mirror back out of his hands, and take stock of just what had happened. Just how close he'd been to another seven years.

"Jeeze, what was that?" Midoriya pushed himself onto his feet, looking at the brackets the mirror had been mounted on. One was bent downwards, which had allowed the mirror to lean forward, pop out of the others and fall. A bad set-up, Todoroki decided.

It had only been a few weeks since moving into the Heights Alliance building, and this was Todoroki's second run-in with that mirror already. The first time came unbidden, a bad night before leaving him in a foul morning mood before visiting the baths. He'd passed by the mirror in there, spent one moment too long looking at himself, and almost reached out to tear it down.

He'd caught himself though, this wasn't his home, his actions wouldn't be ignored, and he needed to break that habit anyway. He stayed his hand.

Then a week later the damn mirror actually just fell off the wall right in front of him. Seriously, what the hell?

"Lucky we stopped it," Midoriya seemed chipper all the same, as Todoroki set the mirror down against the wall, "wouldn't want seven years bad luck, right?" Todoroki did his absolute best not to inform Midoriya that he was probably already cursed for life.

"Hey," to his surprise, Midoriya was actually looking at him with some measure of intent – usually an expression reserved for when plotting heroics. It meant his mind was in high-gear, but Todoroki was unsure what could have possibly spurred that. At least until he spoke again. "Are you okay?"

That was when he froze, mind ground to a halt at the question. Was he okay?

He spent too long like that, the question rattling in his head, and Midoriya sighed. It jolted him back to reality but... they both now knew the answer and it wasn't the best. Midoriya seemed sad, contemplating and confused. Probably didn't really know what to say. The two just... let it be, silent for a moment. Then Todoroki breathed out in response.

"I thought being that good at observation was reserved for heroics," he tried to chuckle, but the line ended up being drier than he wanted it to. Midoriya didn't seem too put off by it, only shaking his head as he leaned back against the wall.

"You could have caught that mirror normally," he ticked a few fingers on his hand, counting off ways Todoroki was out of sorts, "and you play off of lines like the seven years thing usually, make things seem like they're no trouble at all." He tilted his hand, pointing to Todoroki's feet. "Also you froze a bit of the floor."

That was easily the most shocking observation, and Todoroki rapidly bent down and put his hand over the ice, defrosted it to nothing. How the hell had he... "That's..."

"You're distracted," Midoriya shrugged, without any judgement in his tone, "so when you go to react to something, your Quirk starts acting along with you. Remember the Hagakure thing?"

Todoroki laughed. That had been a weird day. Then sighed and leaned against the wall himself. Damn, he really was out of sorts. Their training of late had been intense, he'd been focusing on developing his Quirk further, it wasn't that weird, really, for him to be a little out of it. Exhaustion, the nature of spending so much time with his fire in hand, they'd mix and he'd momentarily remember moments in his past he hated. That alone...

"You got me," he could only admit it, Midoriya had read him like a book, "I've just... had a lot on my mind lately, is all. It's okay. I'll be okay."

Midoriya nodded and accepted that, allowing Todoroki to relax. Having been so clearly read had surprised him, but somehow it didn't upset him as much as he thought it might have. He'd just need to remember in future that Midoriya was seriously observant. What a guy.

"Are you going to Ashido's party?" That question surprised Todoroki too, but it really shouldn't have. Ashido had been hyping it up for the last two days, and he knew she'd recruited Midoriya to help out with it.

"I was thinking about it." And that was the truth of that – Todoroki hadn't really decided yet whether he was up for that much social interaction. It sounded fun, in theory, but Ashido was the type to go overboard as soon as she got the chance. There was no way the night wouldn't change into something else if she had her way. He wasn't sure if he was prepared for that. He wasn't sure anyone was.

"You should come!" At the very least Midoriya seemed into it. Being so involved, he was definitely being exposed to Ashido's enthusiasm for it, but it was was still nice to see him so excited for a social activity. Maybe it'd be nice to go after all.

"You know, maybe I will." Todoroki could have sworn Midoriya's grin had to actually hurt to make that wide. What a guy.

* * *

"Are you okay?"

That was the second time that day Midoriya asked him that, and the second time he surprised Todoroki by doing so. He'd come to the party, been welcomed by the others, but mostly just kept to himself. Not out of any sort of desire to avoid others, just... he didn't really feel up to it. Midoriya had motivated him to show but actually taking part, that might be asking a little too much. Another day sure, but this one just didn't feel that good. He felt bad thinking that, but those thoughts didn't help to feel any better. A little downwards spiral he'd trapped himself in.

Then, of course, Midoriya had shown up again. Todoroki forced a smile, tried to play it off as just not feeling up to being too social, then realised Midoriya had him read like a book. How did he manage it? Todoroki had no idea.

So he admitted it. Admitted the stress he felt as he worked to regain all the years he'd spent repressing one half of his Quirk, admitted to the frustrations of how deeply the feeling of that power was tied to an anger that had burned within him. Admitted to the struggle he was having to keep looking forward. He would, he'd already promised that to his mother, but that didn't make it easy. It was still a battle, day to day, to be better than who he was before. A hard fight indeed.

Midoriya sympathised. Understanding was difficult, but he was able to sympathise. That was honestly good enough.

Somehow, wherever Midoriya went, others gathered. People joined the two and conversations arose, nothing too deep, simply friends spending time together. Todoroki relaxed in their presence, and the night continued on comfortably. He was happy here, he realised after a time. Midoriya had been right.

It was the right choice to come here tonight.

Of course once Ashido actually revealed her secret stash and announced her intention to kick the party into high-gear, Todoroki bowed out. Hanging out with friends and chatting was fine, but whatever sugar-laced madness Ashido had planned was probably a bit too much. Honestly, given the stories he heard the following days and weeks after, he didn't regret leaving then at all.

But he was still happy he'd gone.

* * *

Before his battle with Midoriya at the Sports Festival, Todoroki Shouto had made a foolish thought. Because Midoriya was the one chosen by All Might, he'd momentarily thought of him as a mirror – a reflection of him and the struggle between his father and All Might himself.

Yet when the battle raged, when shards of ice flew with every strike Midoriya released, Todoroki saw in them – in the fractions of a second they flew by his eyes – only himself reflected. No other.

It was about time, he realised afterwards, that someone helped him make sure he'd only ever see himself in a mirror.


	7. Ojiro Mashirao Makes For A Good Teacher

Since the first Quirk shone throughout the hospital ward its bearer was born into, the nature of standardised practises had fallen away from the world. The variety in the human body, it increased ten, then a hundred times over, the differences between any two people now so very much more than before.

With that variety came the realisation that which had worked for every last human no longer would, in clothing, in food, in environment, in lifestyle. While new majorities formed across the world, the amount of people who fell outside of them was beyond significant, and speciality providers arose to cater to them specifically. A true tailor could account for a hundred different types of body. A true cook a hundred different physiologies.

A true martial artist, a hundred different foes.

From the youngest of ages Ojiro Mashirao had been trained, inheriting the arts practised and passed down from his family. It was not that they were martial arts legends, but simply that they kept the art alive since before the time of Quirks. And although it had gone through revisions and modifications, expansions to better handle the sheer range of opponents one could face, its core principles remained the same. And from them Ojiro had learned and grown.

Today, as a student of U.A. on the path to heroism, he made sure never to let those core lessons be forgotten, kept them in mind in each battle he was thrown into. Thanks to those lessons, he persisted. Thanks to the training he had gone through all this time, he remained.

He knew that when this was over, when the name of Martial Arts Hero Tailman was there amongst the alumni of U.A., the arts he had inherited and never forgotten would be one of the reasons it was so. He had deep pride within them.

Even still, it had come as a surprise just how interested many of his fellow students became in his fighting style. Kaminari and Sero often mentioned how cool it was seeing how he moved, Iida called him an inspiration in diligence, and ever since their Field Training assignments, Uraraka had spoken to him about martial arts now and again. The two had completely different trainings, but there was still common ground, and it was nice that she seemed to have a similar respect for the deep principles behind them.

Honestly, his martial arts training was one of the things Ojiro expected to least capture the attention of everyone else around him, especially with their far more notable and energetic Quirks. Yet it had and, usually after any test or training in which he displayed his skills, it was time for a new round of comments and appreciation to come his way. Honestly it was a little embarrassing.

But he didn't hate it.

Hagakure had been the one to ask him first, to suggest that maybe he had some moves to teach her. He'd kind of waved it off, said he wouldn't make a good teacher, but she'd insisted he try. When he still held off on it she pouted and walked off, only to return a few minutes later with Midoriya and Kaminari in tow. Three students, she held out an invisible hand – obvious by the positioning of her sleeve – three fingers evidently raised, come on, Ojiro, teach us something!

That was how it began for Ojiro, how once-a-week lessons with his classmates came to be. The three to begin, Hagakure seemed to be having fun just going with the flow, while Midoriya was of course in full study mode. His observational skills had already been noted before – the amount he knew about almost every hero showed absolute fascination and dedication. Kaminari kind of half-assed his effort, but he also seemed to be happy to be around. Ojiro got the feeling he was just waiting to learn how to best flip someone onto their back. Not too disciplined, that one.

And, as the weeks rolled by, other students came and went. Kirishima and Sero occasionally got in on the action – mainly it seemed to wrestle Kaminari to the ground when he tried to test out 'sweet martial arts moves' he'd come up with that Ojiro was sure he was imitating from old movies. Now and again Uraraka wanted Ojiro to make sure her own training was still sharp – and the two tested in light sparring, often drawing the attention of all the others. Ashido would alternate between teasing and support – the first solely for the boys and the second mostly for Hagakure – while Aoyama decided he needed to evaluate the 'flair' of their movements.

It was unquestionably busy, and most of the time rather than direct training it mostly ended up with a bunch of them hanging out and paying physical lip service to the movements. Ojiro really didn't dislike it though, it was nice just… being. He liked it.

But then one question alone threw him completely off his track, and made him wonder just what he was doing. Just one question…

"Are you enjoying teaching us, Ojiro?"

When Midoriya asked that, sitting next to Ojiro as the two took drinks after training, his first reaction was to say 'yes'. But before he'd said it his thoughts had caught up with him, and he'd gone silent instead. The two sat there, for a time, before Ojiro finally figured out what was wrong. Made him realise something that had been off all this time he had never paid attention to. Something he now realised was bugging him all along.

"I'm… not really doing that though, am I?"

The past few sessions, it had been more or less the same each time, meet up, repeat basic exercises, then mostly stand around and chat, hang out with the others who came by, occasionally make movements that emulated training. But there was no dedication to it, no drive to go further. It was just… a backdrop.

When Ojiro looked to Midoriya the boy didn't seem surprised by his reply, simply calm in watching him. He'd seen it, and was wondering if it was okay with Ojiro. Ojiro suddenly wondered if it was.

"I'm starting to feel like… I should be taking this more seriously." What was it about Midoriya that seemed to encourage that? His absolute determination and drive, his pursuit of heroism, they were inspirational, had inspired many times over. Kaminari had admitted to Ojiro once that Midoriya had been the one to get him to join up with training rather than Hagakure, having pointed out to Kaminari how he'd always been one of the ones most likely to talk about Ojiro's martial arts. Midoriya had observed him too. All of them, in the end.

Seriously, this guy was just way too much.

Ojiro, along with the rest of his class, had watched him grow into who he was now, far more confident than the day he'd begun. Sometimes, when Midoriya took the lead amongst their numbers, Ojiro got the impression of a far larger back to him, bearing far more than his smaller stature could handle. There was an inner strength to Midoriya that was truly growing greater and greater each day, an inner strength Ojiro could not help but respect. Could not help but wish to emulate.

"Maybe I should demand a little more next time."

There were complaints, the next week, as Ojiro started actually applying pressure. If they wanted to learn from him, they'd need to ground themselves in the basics and truly devote themselves to it. Slacking off would just waste another day. No more wasted days.

The turnaround was interesting. Kaminari, who had been the most easy-going of the main trio trying to learn under him, basically filtered out, tended to hang around to watch and, when Ojiro wasn't keeping him from interrupting the others, chat. Kirishima meanwhile, who Ojiro had at first needed to chase off when he got involved to mess around, fell into training as well, enjoying the exercise.

Midoriya continued on as ever, dutifully learning and observing. Even if the basics being taught were more about discipline and self-control than direct movements to apply to combat, it seemed to have earned his full attention. Ojiro wondered just how he'd make use of what he learned going on.

The last member of the active group, Hagakure, was the one most full of surprises. She'd become somehow even more exuberant and energetic when Ojiro started demanding more of those in training, starting every day completely pumped up and ready to go. The only exception to that had been the week she was dealing with exhaustion, and the consequences of that had been… well, that had been a weird day, to say the least.

However it may be, Ojiro found that actually trying harder to teach felt a lot better, like he was actually giving something of value. The discipline of it, the consistency, others started to talk to him about training – not in martial arts so much as simply maintaining focus and drive on their own. With twenty vastly different Quirks and bodies in their class, each student needed something slightly different to hone them. But they all needed passion to go forward.

Somehow Ojiro had become a symbol of such? That weirded him out a whole lot.

Being a symbol… Ojiro recognised that nature as well. There were lots of people who became symbols – from the ultimate All Might to just his fellow students. Even thinking about it though, it felt like an incredible responsibility the world put on your shoulders. He wasn't quite sure what to think.

But he had an idea of who to ask.

"How do you think All Might does it?"

When he asked the question Midoriya briefly fumbled with his drink, clearly caught off-guard by being asked an All Might question. But he was the guy to go to, everyone knew that by now. He really needed to get used to it.

"Being the Symbol of Peace, it's so much. I can't imagine having the entire world holding me as meaning something like that." Just being a little symbol amongst his classmates had Ojiro stress at times. The entire world though…

"It's…" Midoriya opened his mouth, closed it, then spoke again. "It's more than just being. It's need. The Symbol of Peace is needed, not decided. No-one just becomes it. They answer the need. That's… what I think."

"Hmm." Often, in the wake of training, these two sat together. Midoriya was usually quiet, but he had interesting things to say when prompted. And on the subject of heroism, his ideals and insights were very astute. That was his heroism fanboyism, Ojiro supposed.

But honestly? He kind of liked it.

"I guess it's good practise in class then, huh?" Ojiro smiled around his drink, thinking about everything they'd been through so far. So so much. "We're going to be U.A. Heroes, right? Being held to standards of all sorts, it's best to have that amongst our peers already, you know?"

It did make sense, in a way. When you're a Professional Hero, the world looks at you and holds you to a standard. The highest measure of that standard of course was All Might, but even being comparable meant a Hero was incredible. Both goal and standard, one figure in the horizon. The more Ojiro thought about it, the more it made sense how much awe and respect the world had for that man. He really was something else.

"At least," Midoriya gave a relaxed smile too – something rare enough to see to be pleasing – "I think being known for your dedication to improvement is really respectable, Ojiro."

Okay well now HIS face was a little red at that. Genuine compliments always got him. Damn, Midoriya, you sure know how to share some praise.

Ojiro wasn't going to let that sit though, and he invested far too much thought constructing the perfect rebuttal. He wasn't the only one who was a symbol in his class. He tilted his head and gave Midoriya a smirk in response.

"Same to you, Mr. Never Gives Up."


	8. Mineta Minoru Always Wanted To Be Cool

_((The views and opinions expressed in this chapter are those of Mineta Minoru and do not necessarily reflect those of the author.))_

* * *

Life lessons came one after the other for the students of U.A., their outlooks and natures shaped and enhanced by experience after experience, wall after wall thrown at them to ensure that only the best would walk the path of heroism. Some needed to learn confidence. Some restraint. Some just required a slight adjustment to their world views. All it took, really, was to see something in the right frame of mind. That was how you changed.

People would have called him a coward, and maybe they'd have been right. Once. But courage didn't mean feeling no fear, it meant rising above the fear you did feel. He'd learned that early, thanks to another. That had been the start of his own Hero Academia.

There was a world of things people could say about Mineta Minoru, but that he was a coward wouldn't stick anymore. His life lesson, the drive to become a Hero, he'd found the determination for it from watching Midoriya Izuku. He knew now what it meant to be cool. He was happy to go on.

Admittedly, of all the life lessons Mineta could have learned, that was one of the least useful to most of those around him.

Feh, whatever, things were great! He had friends, there were incredible women all over the place, and he even did nice things now and again! Did he not just yesterday restock all the supplies in the laundry? Admittedly it had been both laundries so he had an excuse to go over to the girl's side, and Yaoyorozu had threatened to impale him on a metal rod if he took more than one step through the entrance… heh, impale, rod, nice… well, whatever. He'd gotten enough of a peek as it was.

For now.

Actually altruism was on his mind now and not even the fake kind to get on a lady's good side. The training they were all going through was picking up in intensity, and some of the students were starting to overwork themselves. You'd think the lesson about exhaustion would have been taught a while back with that day but nope, didn't stick. People still working themselves into the ground. No self-control, Mineta concluded. Terrible.

Anyway, point was, Midoriya had overworked himself and was taking a nurse's office rest to make sure he hadn't ruined any muscles – thanks to the repeated pounding he'd given them since starting this year – and Mineta was going to get him a basket of fruit.

What? They were friends! Mineta wasn't an asshole or anything, sheesh!

"Hey Shouji, check out these melons!"

It really wasn't a surprise for that sort of line to come naturally out of Mineta's mouth, but at least this time he was just holding a pair of fruits in front of him. Actually hold on, check out the rack on that lady just going by, damn girl, keep movin-

"Mineta," a sizable hand found grip on the back of his collar, lifted him up and turned him around to the stand he'd lifted the melons off, "we just need one."

"Kay." Shouji had agreed to come along with him to gather the fruit basket, so the two might present it together. The figure he cut, the powers he possessed, wow Mineta wouldn't even begin to deny he envied him. But he also liked the guy a lot, so he was fine with it. He was making his situation work anyway, right? And people would be way more impressed when he found success. He knew it.

Honestly, they only had a little bit of time. Midoriya would probably be let out by the late-afternoon, so the two had to get the basket together and back to U.A. before then. It made the entire gesture more symbolic than anything else, but whatever, it was fine! Still meant being friends.

Also they'd probably just end up sharing the fruit and chilling out and that sounded cool too.

"How we doing?" Shouji was the one holding the basket, half-laden with fruit now. After paying for a melon and adding it to the stock they'd collected, it looked like they'd only need a little more. Then it was back to U.A. No worries.

Yet as they finished up construction of the fruit basket, and Mineta continued to scan the figures of all the lovely ladies within the shopping centre, his eyes fell upon something familiar. Someone.

He'd recognise that shape anywhere, wasn't that...?

"Hey Asui!"

It was rare to see her jump, as usually calm and relaxed as she always was, but she certainly seemed surprised to be caught out here. Oh Asui, what are you up to, buying something interesting? What's your taste? No need to hide it, just go ahead and show it off!

"Huh, just a newsagency." Oh, well that was boring. Mineta wasn't sure what Asui was buying, or what had caused her to be as surprised by him as she had been, but it clearly wasn't anything illicit or immoral. Therefore, boring.

"Asui," Shouji appeared behind Mineta, towering over him once more, basket in hand, "He's not causing you trouble, is he?"

Jeeze, Shouji, have a little faith! Honestly, how many times had he checked in with people to make sure Mineta was keeping to himself. So mistrustful! This was just friends hanging out, right?

"You can call me Tsuyu," Asui nodded to Shouji, who nodded back in return. While they were distracted with each other, Mineta had slipped around behind her, and spotted what she was hiding behind her back. Aha! That was actually cute.

"A get-well card?" She jumped in surprise and turned around with a scandalised look to stare at him as he announced what she had, putting the pieces together. Sure, she could be sending something to family, but she wouldn't be this caught out if she was. No, this was definitely one thing and one thing only. She was ribbiting softly. Heh heh heh.

"Would you like to help us finish this fruit basket?" Shouji completely overwrote Mineta's schemes by inviting Asui into their gift, the gift Mineta had spearheaded the idea of! As soon as he explained they were getting it for Midoriya, Asui immediately nodded and seemed to lighten up immensely. She offered Shouji the card if he wanted to put his name in it too, and he did so with ease, having the multitude of hands necessary to balance and write into it while still holding the basket. Damn, that Quirk really was something. Think about all the things you could hold at once with that many hands. Mineta was jealous.

Not too jealous though. His Quirk was still cool too. He made it cool. That's how it worked, right? Midoriya had taught him that.

"Hey I should sign the card too!" If Asui was getting in on his fruit basket plan, he should get to be part of her card plan, it was only fair! When Shouji looked at her she nodded, so the card was lowered down for Mineta to sign. Yeah! He quickly put his name into it, folded it back and passed it up to Asui, who took it and followed after Shouji to finish off the fruit basket. So the three of them would share the glory of delivering it to Midoriya, that was fine, no worries.

At the very least while finishing the basket, he'd have something worth looking at for the length of it. Though somehow Shouji kept standing between the two of them. Jeeze!

No-one had any trust these days, none at all!

* * *

"Hey Midoriya, check out this melon!"

The joke didn't fly as well with only one, but there was no way Shouji had seen that coming, it had just been reasonable that two wouldn't have fit in the dang basket. Midoriya looked about as startled to see them burst into the nurse's office as he could be, but Recovery Girl didn't seem to mind. Being lively was good for youths, after all.

"Mineta, Shouji, As-Tsuyu!" He was sitting up, not bandaged or anything, probably just about to leave. Well too bad Midoriya, time for bedside manner from friends! That's what you get for working yourself into such a state! Mineta went and pushed the melon into his hands as Shouji sat the basket down. Asui handed him the card.

"Make sure to care for yourself, ribbit."

"Guys..." Jeeze how did he always seem so emotional? When the going got tough, Midoriya was about as unstoppable as they came, but outside of that he's less a glass case of emotions than a no case, nothing holding him back. Mineta didn't really have a clue how he kept it together when he did, but it was unquestionable at this point that Midoriya was the guy to rely on in a tense situation.

He really was impressive! That's what Mineta had decided as far back as the Villain Invasion. What he and Asui had seen.

"Nothing damaged then?" Shouji, always towering over them, asked the simple and direct questions, didn't dance around the topics to be addressed. Like a brick through a window, no subtlety, but Mineta didn't hate it. He'd just take care of being the sneaky one. Unsubtle Cop, Sneak Cop. That's how it worked, right? Yeah probably.

"No, no, I'm fine," Midoriya shook his head, looking down at the card he held every now and again. Only those three had gone and signed it and he looked ready to bawl with happiness. Seriously that guy. "I just need to go a little easier in future. Pushed myself a bit too far."

Shouji nodded, one pair of arms crossed. "Don't overstress. Remember what happened-"

"I remember." Midoriya nodded quickly, which closed out the topic. Unforgettable, really.

"Come on have a fruit!" Mineta was keen to get into the basket, a thing to share amongst friends. Though before Midoriya could, Recovery Girl was quick to cut them off, and ask them to take care of fruit sharing outside. Her office wasn't for impromptu parties or hangouts, after all... Though she wouldn't say no to some strawberries as thanks for her services.

Once the quartet were settled outside, a tree found to rest under and their fruit basket already a little lighter, they set in. Midoriya and Shouji could both easily split the melon, so it was easy enough to share amongst them. A nice and silent moment of fruit. Quality.

It was good, like this. Shouji got Midoriya talking about their training and last few days, Asui adding in her own thoughts. Mineta made a reference to the improving figure of all the girls in class and got tongue-whipped upside the head, the usual way things were. Nice to take it easy, just relax for a bit.

Becoming a Hero meant working hard, but it didn't mean doing it all the time, right? Take a moment to relax and look at all the great things around, Mineta sure did.

Of all the life lessons Mineta could teach another, that was one of the few most of those around him weren't put off to hear. At least until he opened his mouth and contextualised.


	9. Kaminari Denki Can Tell What's Happenin'

When something's going down, chances are that Kaminari Denki is aware of it.

In his class, at least, it's not that hard. Sure there were some socialites and partiers, but there were plenty of people who weren't that at all. So reading them was actually pretty easy. And any time a group was gathered, it was always obvious who was the one leading the charge. He'd made a game of it early, guessing when it was Iida instructing the values of respect for U.A., or Kirishima and Sero chatting up a storm, or Hagakure and Ashido attempting to come up with out of school plans, but he gave it up after a few weeks when he kept winning. It just wasn't a challenge.

Some might insinuate that if Kaminari put as much effort into his studies as he did into people-watching he might be earning much better grades, but they didn't get playing to your strengths. Being able to watch people and understand what's happening in a snap is a really good skill, and Kaminari was doing his best to master, if not monopolise, it.

Though the ones most competitive in the art still caught him off guard.

Kirishima and Jirou weren't surprises; Kirishima was made of heart and Jirou was amazingly focused. Ashido and Sero took things too easy to over-think, which kept them from being as on the ball as those two were.

Midoriya and Bakugou though... damn, that was basically cheating. Admittedly Bakugou very loudly did not give a shit, and the fact that he had a keen understanding of the people around him went under the radar ninety-nine percent of the time. When Kaminari had first realised just how aware Bakugou was, man, that had rocked his world. The guy had insight like the combat beast he was. It just shouldn't have stretched to getting people.

And on the other hand was Midoriya. When he came back to class after the Battle Trial, Kaminari had seen him stumbling over his words, clearly almost panicking for the amount of people speaking to him at once. You start like that, doesn't matter how much better things get, how much calmer and more relaxed you become around people, you don't miraculously pull out the ability to understand others then. It doesn't just happen.

So he had to go into this with that. Nervous, on-edge Midoriya, starting U.A., had the ability to understand. He just didn't have the confidence to apply it. That's what Kaminari decided.

And oh, how things changed. Midoriya's own instincts, how he led with them, how he guided others. He knew how to combine the powers of those around him, how to solve any challenge he faced with what was on hand. Kaminari really admired that, you know?

But the other side to it was people. When it wasn't combat, when it was just life, Midoriya was still sometimes nervous, still sometimes cautious. That said a lot of things, and Kaminari would get to that in a bit. But then sometimes Midoriya said things to others that betrayed just how much he understood. Just how much he had seen.

Sometimes he even surprised Kaminari with what he saw in others.

Kirishima got too emotional and Jirou kept her distance too well. Bakugou insisted on not caring as best he could. And Midoriya's observation only really shone in moments he was sure it was needed. So yeah, Kaminari still had the greatest grip on reading the crowd.

Sometimes he felt challenged though, and that always surprised him. But hey, just meant he had to get even better, you know? Just like that.

* * *

"Hey," he placed a hand on Kirishima's shoulder, the latter spending some time by himself, working out in one of the training fields outside. Kirishima didn't seem too surprised to see him, gave a grin through the sweat on his brow. Wow, he'd really been going at it, huh? "You doing okay?"

Bullseye.

The immediate change of expression on Kirishima's face told Kaminari all he'd needed to know – he'd been there when Jirou finally lost it at the whole Bakugou and Midoriya thing. It had been a few days since then, and it was very clear Kirishima still hadn't done what he said he would. Probably took a lot to build up to that particular topic, god Kaminari wouldn't want to be the one to do it. Still, Kirishima had said he would...

"Dammit man," Kaminari couldn't help but laugh at Kirishima's response – despite being great at understanding others, he had no poker face whatsoever. It was a two-way street with that boy. "This isn't easy, you know?"

"Oh hell yeah I know, you think I'd be willing to do that? It's terrifying and I'm not even his closest friend." Just saying that was enough to get Kirishima's shoulders to slump, which... wasn't exactly Kaminari's plan. He wasn't here to discourage the guy, more to... give him support. He clearly needed it. "Look, take it slow. Jirou gets how hard it'll be, she's gonna give you as much time as you need."

Those slumped shoulders unslumped a little and Kaminari gave the guy a comforting pat on the back. He seriously looked like he needed it. "Just, y'know, try not to look so down around Midoriya, the last thing anyone needs is him figuring out this topic is going on."

There was a truth, recognised by Kirishima easily given the sudden look of horror on his face at the prospect. No-one would demand everyone leave things be as much as Midoriya would, request that it be left to rest. And if he asked that directly, yeah, they'd all probably have to stop. They were going behind his back right now without him knowing, but if he did...

Hell, even this was getting a little too nosy, but what could you do? It wasn't like the issue had only been grinding Jirou's gears over the past few months. He might have managed to somehow form a burgeoning friendship with Bakugou – which had surprised even Kaminari – but a small part of him was still pissed too. It was just... how did you even begin with that? Hell if Kaminari knew. He doubted Kirishima did either. He doubted anyone did.

"I just gotta talk." "You just gotta talk."

It was easy enough to say that, but committing was something else entirely. Kaminari was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to. But Kirishima had said he would and Kirishima was the type to never go back on his promises. Kaminari clapped him on the shoulder once more.

"You'll do great."

He believed that, and that was the truth.

* * *

"Miss. Miss. Miss."

"Dammit man, you're not helping!"

The pointer and shooter system Kaminari had obtained was an incredible boost to his abilities, but required discipline and focus to master. Two things a lot of people would write him off as not being up to. At the very least, after Ojiro's weekly training sessions, he'd thought inviting him and Midoriya to help him out with practise would be a good idea.

He had no idea the pair were capable of providing such cutting commentary.

"Do your best, Kaminari!"

Oh yeah, Midoriya, like Kaminari hadn't overheard you listing out strengths and weaknesses of the system to Ojiro while thinking Kaminari was focused on hitting the targets set up; for such a sweet guy he sure cut to the chase when he suggested it would be difficult for Kaminari to keep up in tense situations. Like hell!

And what was with Ojiro keeping calling out misses whenever the hits hadn't been direct? He was meant to be taking a break right now and the two kept telling him to keep at it, he hadn't asked for taskmasters like that! Just some friends hanging out! Jeeze!

"Miss!"

"Like hell!"

The bolt of electricity, loosed from his fingertips, went right to the target he'd just hit. It struck the target, searing a hole right through it, and Kaminari lowered his fingers with a smirk – taking a moment to pretend like he was blowing smoke off of them first. Style always, of course.

"Pretty sure you weren't meant to damage the targets." Ojiro seemed unimpressed. Midoriya was nodding.

"It's about accuracy of the disks more than your Quirk right now." The two nodded to one another. Unbelievable!

"I cannot," Kaminari truly couldn't, "even begin to believe how hard you two are busting my balls for this. Is this punishment for not sticking out with the martial arts training? Is it?"

They laughed and he, after a moment, chuckled too. Yeah it wasn't, of course it wasn't. That was just how they all were. Always pushing each other to get better. Even he'd been caught in that flow.

Even he had…

Kaminari Denki didn't even begin to make false pretences about his Quirk – he was an exceptionally lucky guy. People with electricity Quirks, especially ones as powerful as his, they could make a living with ease, just generating power for the people. He'd spoken to someone like that once, who just spent hours at a time with one hand on a receiver producing electricity and the other browsing the internet to pass the time. Easy-living, without question.

That wasn't him though, as much as it would surprise some of the people who knew him. Sure he was easy-going, relaxed and carefree, but that didn't mean he wasn't living by ideals. This power, he should make it mean something, really mean something. So he went through the motions and got accepted into U.A., just like that.

And sure, sometimes they were still struggles, people would still say he wasn't being serious enough. But he was making his own pace and he could already tell how much he was changing. It was good.

He hadn't really expected those around him to have that big of an impact though. Jeeze, those guys.

He'd expected the friendships. Kirishima, Ashido, Sero, they were all pretty similar to him. Jirou and Bakugou had both been a little more unexpected, for very different reasons, but Kaminari still felt he could call them friends now. Honestly he couldn't really think of anyone in his class he had it against. It was good.

The motivation though, that surprised him. But whenever he thought about it, whenever he traced it back, there was really only the two sources, spreading it to the others. Midoriya and Bakugou, always at the centre, always pushing forward. Why the hell was it that the two who knew each other, the two so very different, the two with such very powerful Quirks and instincts, kept doing that? Midoriya was an inspiration, and rallied people with ease. Bakugou… he had this unending drive, and people somehow found his pace spreading to them. Raced to keep up, even without thinking of him. It was kind of weird.

If Kaminari were going to speak of some of the most influential people in his class, those who were out there like Ashido and Iida, he'd say them first. People would nod and agree, those two always seemed to have their voices heard, made things happen. That made sense.

The smart ones though, the ones who pushed him for deeper thoughts, they'd worm out his true suspicions, that somehow it was Midoriya and Bakugou keeping them going. And that was just so weird to think about.

"No slacking, Kaminari, back to work!"

"Do your best!"

Ojiro and Midoriya weren't letting him stop, so with an overly-faked sigh of exhaustion at the prospect of continued training, he turned his attention back to the targets, back to mastering his new gear.

Somehow though, the thoughts he was having just didn't go away. Maybe he should keep his eyes on those two more often, see just what was happening around them.

Whenever, wherever, he was almost positive, they were sure to keep things interesting.


	10. Asui Tsuyu Won't Worry About This Winter

Asui Tsuyu never liked wintertime.

Her Quirk, her frog-like nature, it came with many advantages. Unquestionably, however, there were also some downsides.

When winter came, when cold set in around her, Asui's metabolism slowed. Such was true for her entire family and, over the years of her life, she'd come to resent that part of the year, the time when activity slowed at home, when the house was far quieter than it ever should be. She didn't like that silence.

She'd thought of it, over the months of attending U.A., and each time the same conclusion had been reached. Even with the activity and excitement of her class, when winter came she'd still return to the same quiet house. Still feel sluggish and lifeless. The cold would still make for far emptier months.

That was what she believed, ignored yet knew it was true, until the requests for board were made to the students, and Heights Alliance opened to house them within. Then, and only then, did a faint spark of hope light within her.

Maybe… maybe this time it would be different.

* * *

"We got the ice!"

The triumphant return was met with cries of approval from fellow students, all laid out across the common room of the 1-A Heights Alliance building. It had been a rash of unfortunate occurrences, from Todoroki taking the day off to visit his mother, to the immense heat wave going across the city at the time, to the building's air conditioning system failing and requiring repairs. It didn't really matter how soon it would be fixed, it wasn't soon enough.

So lots had been drawn, Midoriya and Shouji were marked as losers, and out they were sent to get and bring ice back to their fellows. That had been fifteen minutes ago and by this point most of the class had melted onto the ground. This was the worst.

But then they returned, then bags of ice were spread around those begging for relief, and a moment's peace and silence in comfort reigned.

Kaminari was the first to make the subject known.

"I really want to try snowboarding again, I didn't get a good enough chance last year."

Quizzical looks coming at him were deflected as he rolled over off the floor, a bag of ice resting on his back. He looked up in the direction he was pointing, continued on with his point. "You know, half a year and winter's around, it'll be good! I want to go to the mountains, yeah?"

The topic was so displaced from their current situation that it really took the majority a moment to grasp it, before an excited Hagakure started talking about going skiing again. Sero agreed, those two immediately relating stories of doing so in the past, and somehow in the midst of all of this heat the topic most on everyone's lips was the depths of winter.

Less affected by the heat than most, enjoying the humidity, Asui listened in, a collapsed Uraraka in the chair next to her holding a cube of ice to her forehead.

"I want to go mountain climbing!" Kirishima's exclamation drew approval from Iida and Satou, while some of the others waved it off as being a little too strenuous. Midoriya's head whipped around extremely unsubtly, and everyone who noticed followed his gaze to Bakugou, who'd actually been in the process of tilting his head Kirishima's way before being so rudely outed.

A brief moment where he seemed about ready to explode once more was averted as Midoriya looked away and Kirishima inserted himself back into the limelight, invited Bakugou to go with him. Bakugou at least calmed down and waved him off, leaning back down into his chair. He was layered with ice – not for any sort of weakness, he'd be quick to say, just that it would be bad if he were the one sweating up a storm. No one questioned that.

Yaoyorozu was telling a tale now of visiting the mountains, but for her it was actually foreign trips with her family than anything locally around. Interesting but not quite relatable. Then Ashido stood up and clapped her hands together.

"How about a class trip to the mountains this year?"

Immediate excitement coursed around the room, the heat dutifully ignored as the concept of a winter retreat filled the minds of those within. They could go to a camp and climb mountains and ski and snowboard and…

"Wouldn't that just inspire a Villain attack?"

Asui's simple, logical statement immediately quietened the room, frowns falling on the faces of everyone around. A few of the students returned attention to the ice they were cooling themselves with, all too conscious now of the heat. It wasn't that she was wrong, just that such a statement had thrown off their entire moment. It would have been nice to keep going just a little longer.

She felt bad about saying that already.

"We-well, you know, they might have captured all of the Villains by then!" Uraraka had stood up and raised an arm in defiance of the Villains, confidence exuded through the heat. "If they do then there's no reason we can't have our trip, right?"

Short murmurs of agreement bounced across the room before Kirishima reiterated that they'd have the best lodge party, at which point Ashido was immediately one-hundred percent back on board and the room was lively once more. Yeah, the Villains would be dealt with, and the upcoming winter trip would be the best. No doubts about it.

And while discussion went on, different wintery topics drifted about those gathered in the room to best resist the heat, and time ticked on by, Asui Tsuyu excused herself and moved outside into the shade. The air was warm and humid, relaxing to her, so as long as she wasn't in direct sunlight she'd be fine.

This would be fine.

* * *

"Hey, Asu-Tsuyu?" Her eyes opened to find Midoriya had come outside, the light of day now telling her it was mid-afternoon. She'd napped off in the warmth, it seemed, to her own surprise. Still, it wasn't like she felt uncomfortable because of it. She sat back up and greeted Midoriya, who had apparently come out to find her alone. Midoriya sat down beside her.

"Is everything okay?"

Of course he noticed.

She sighed as she leaned back, head pressed against the bark of the tree she'd settled under. She'd been taken note of when she immediately ruined the mood before, but she hadn't expected someone to see her head out of the common room soon after. Apparently Midoriya at least had. Naturally.

"Tsuyu?"

"I don't like the winter." She was honest, if nothing else, and direct. Traits she liked about herself, in spite of the trouble they would sometimes cause. Such as earlier, for example. "Everything becomes so quiet then, it's lonely. I've never had a good winter before."

It wasn't true hibernation, that which the cold forced upon those with the Frog Quirk. But motivation and energy was so reduced, so muted, that for days at a time the most comfortable thing was just to quietly hole oneself up in blankets and warmth. Her family spent so much time just… being, over the winter, that true interaction fell by the wayside. And saying how much she disliked it did no good either, for it was not as if she was any different. She'd be slower, less energetic, less lively.

Unquestionably less enjoyable to be around.

"Mhm, I can't say I've had very many good winters either." Midoriya's words caused her to pause, to look over to him with widened eyes. Really?

"Ah!" Midoriya seemed surprised himself, his eyes darting from left to right showing that he was looking for a way to backtrack what he'd said. "It's just that… I didn't really have a lot of friends, when I was younger, so my holidays were all kind of quiet too. I can understand being lonely over them."

It… wasn't anything that should be a surprise, anyone who paid even the slightest amount of attention to Midoriya at the start of the school year would have noticed he'd shown extreme surprise to the friendship others offered him. Most of the class already understood he'd had a rough time before coming here. Most of them understood why.

"Bakugou." Even saying it left a rough feeling in her throat, the topic one known but rarely broached. She'd been there too, when Jirou lost it, though of course she'd understood before then. Everyone had, in a way.

"Wha? No no no!" Midoriya immediately set out to wind the topic back, arms flailing wildly. Every time, he wanted no-one involved. She didn't understand why. No one really did. "No, it's fine, I'm just saying that I understand but… it's going to be better this year! Really!"

… would it? "Ribbit?"

"I mean, this year's different to every other one, right? We're all friends, and all living together! We're not lonely now and we won't be later, is what I'm saying!"

… "Ribbit."

She'd had that thought, though it felt like such a wild dream she sometimes imagined it foolishness. She wasn't at home though, and the people she was here with, her friends, they weren't the type to slow or stop in winter. Indeed they were already making grand plans for how to make winter even more energetic. So why should she feel like this year was going to be the same? It wasn't! Just that…

"And if… I'm less active, less around, when it's cold and snowing?"

"We'll be there when you are."

Asui Tsuyu had hated the winter, because life was slow and silent in those months, far too lonely to be stomached. Each year, even in the depths of summer and warmth and friendship, she'd still had that spectre, knowing that there was a time she could not stand lurking just ahead. It haunted her.

Yet now, she raised her head and smiled, there was hope. A belief she hadn't dared to hold onto had been reaffirmed, and she felt like maybe there was another option for the cold this year.

Maybe she wouldn't feel so lonely after all.


	11. Satou Rikidou, Master Chef

The chore list in Heights Alliance changed each day, members of the twenty Class 1-A students living within the building tasked differently each time. Some preferred specific jobs, while Iida was just thrilled to be doing his duty of care for the building they were responsible for, but there was one job, and one specific arrangement, that absolutely no one would ever complain about. One job at which, when the duties were randomised each time, the lucky person would raise a fist and cheer.

When sharing cooking duty with Satou Rikidou, there really was no way to ever complain. It was the best.

"Hey Midoriya, chop these, would you?"

Today it was Midoriya Izuku on duty, sharing work with Satou, and he, like anyone, was thrilled about it. How could he not be?

"Right!"

Satou's Quirk, which turned sugar into strength, was a simple but powerful one. Throughout their Class he'd already established himself as a beast at arm-wrestling, the longest matches always with Shouji. Midoriya suspected that if he could control the full power of One For All he would be able to win as well, but as it was his five percent just wasn't nearly enough.

Which made Satou really amazing! Truly!

To best fuel his Quirk, Satou learned to cook, that was what he told everyone. Baking was his key skill, but in truth he had a wide range of talents in the field. More than enough to eclipse everyone else in Class 1-A. And more than enough to make working with him well worth it.

"Can you shred these?"

"Sure!"

Being a secondary cook to Satou meant mostly preparatory drudge-work, but the closeness to watching him work, combined with his habit of explaining what he was doing, meant it was easy enough to pick up little tips and tricks to make one better. Kirishima made some muffins after his first cooking duty with Satou and god they'd been incredible. So yeah, no one had any complaints.

"Hey Satou, what's cooking?"

That being said, interest from those not on cooking duty remained high.

"You'll know when it's done," Satou blew off Kaminari's question, continuing to work. It wasn't too hard to see him basting the meat prepared, which drew Kaminari's immediate attention, but when he tried to move in closer to see Satou immediately chased him off. "No-one else in the kitchen!"

That was the usual way it was with him, always a curious student would come by to watch or try and get involved, and always Satou would insist the kitchen was only for those actually on duty and working. Midoriya got the feeling it had become more of a friendship game than any real struggle. It was kind of funny.

"Shhh." The quiet voice in front of Midoriya made him jump in surprise, a brownie from the tray cooling on a counter at the back of the kitchen suspended in the air. Satou, distracted by both Kaminari and Kirishima now, hovering around the entrance to the kitchen, only turned around and spotted the escaping chocolate at the last second.

"Hagakure!" Her laughing voice echoed as she ran, her prize seized. Satou's shoulders slumped. Honestly, no-one had any patience for this.

The ticking forward of time brought with it new visitors and new events – from Ashido and Ojiro teaming up with Kaminari and Kirishima to hassle Satou for their favourites, to Yaoyorozu and Uraraka convincing them to come do homework at the lounge – just close enough to still smell the food that was cooking – to Bakugou pitching a fit at Aoyama for not helping enough with window cleaning, instead focusing on making sure his reflection in them was perfect.

Somehow, from the kitchen area, a little window into the rest of the world was made, which Midoriya found easy to look out from and see the world go by. It was fascinating.

"Hey Midoriya, can you take care of cleaning these?" Another batch of used tools went to wash, the amount of food necessary to feed twenty growing Heroes-to-be by no means small. It wasn't like every day one person cooked for everyone, but sometimes those days came by as well. Nice ways to break from the norm.

Midoriya followed Satou's directions, memorised his words, and picked up what he could to best improve his own cooking skills. The man was almost a natural at teaching them, which led Midoriya to once suggest maybe in the future as a Hero he might also do teaching. Satou waved that off though. Said he wouldn't be any good at it. Midoriya wondered.

The number of students studying in the main lounge increased as the hours ticked by, as the smell of cooking continued to fill the bottom level of Heights Alliance. At times Midoriya could look up to see Yaoyorozu pacing with open book, lectures for the others coming from her, to see Kaminari whisper something to one of the others and set them giggling, to see Iida insisting on proper study decorum while trying not to be taken by the sweet smells in the air himself.

When Mineta raced by for the door, a near apocalyptic Jirou hunting him down while some of the others wore expressions of either pure horror or horrified amusement, Midoriya almost wanted to know. Best not to though. Best not.

And despite all the noise and attention, Satou focused and kept going. That was something to him, he had real focus. Midoriya definitely respected that.

He kept on helping to cook.

* * *

"Cheers to Satou and Midoriya!"

When dinner was served, you thanked the cooks. And no-one received louder thanks, or more appreciation, than Satou Rikidou did. It wasn't always, or even regular, that the entire class ate together, but there were those times still. And, once again, it was often Satou that did it.

It was often a scene, this many of them in one place. If Aizawa wasn't keeping them under tight rein, they tended to get a little out of control, energetic and influential on one another enough that in any combat scenario, things would immediately start happening and then never stop. The entire Provisional License Exam had been a good example of that, though situations had still kept them mostly forced apart.

Still, when even a majority of them was together, it was like a wrecking ball which little else could stop. They really were something.

It was only a short while together, sharing food and relaxing, before the twenty would break apart and return to doing their own thing. Bakugou immediately left, as of course he would, while Uraraka tried to gather more people together to continue doing study. Tokoyami said something about the spectre of night haunting him and moved out, which was pretty difficult to tell if he was having Quirk strain or just being Tokoyami, so Shouji and Kouda went to check on him.

Satou and Midoriya began cleaning up the dishes used.

"It's amazing," Satou looked up at the voice, Midoriya looking forward at the dish but speaking to him, "how everyone gathers around when you cook. No-one else can do that. It's really incredible, Satou."

"Oh, uh," praise wasn't something Satou dealt with too well, he was just doing what he did naturally. It was kind of like being thanked for breathing or walking. He couldn't do much more than shrug, "just something I've always done is all."

Besides, wasn't Midoriya selling himself short here? He had similar abilities, just not in the kitchen. Not to say he was bad or anything, he was definitely in the upper half of capability amongst the rest of Satou's classmates, it was just that, when out in the field…

"I think everyone has something that does that. If it's cooking for me, isn't it heroism for you? Everyone keeps gathering around when you do it, after all."

Now Midoriya looked to be on the defensive, unused to praise. A pair of shy boys, trying to deflect compliments by complimenting the other. Not entirely sure how that works but it seemed to be all the same.

"N-not everyone!" Midoriya was quick to stammer that out, and at that point Satou couldn't exactly disagree. When it came to all of Class 1-A, he definitely gathered more than Midoriya did when each was in their element. That didn't make him more special or anything though, or make his cooking skills more valuable than Midoriya's heroism. There was a lot more to it than that.

"I think it's just because you both do what you love!" Uraraka had leant up against the kitchen counter from the other side, elbows on it and chin propped upon her interlinked fingers. "People just gather around those confident and happy in what they're doing!"

And now they were both on failed defensives, utterly ruined by a genuine and honest compliment. If Midoriya gathered people by being heroic and Satou through loving to cook, Uraraka reached others just by being a shining light. Everyone in their Class had that spark, in some way, and hers was almost blinding.

Midoriya and Satou both stammered appreciation as they continued to clean and she smiled and wandered back over to join the others, her curiosity at what the two were talking about now satisfied.

After a moment's silence, the two looked at each other, then grinned and chuckled. Haha, alright.

When Midoriya thought of Satou, he thought about someone with incredible strength and heart, who was going to make a great Hero and who'd always be able to reach others, if not by power in the field, then by cooking in times of need. His ability to impart lessons through his work, he was someone who could reach many.

Midoriya really thought highly of that.

When Satou thought of Midoriya, he remembered the first time he'd seen him fight, nearly ruin himself yet stand up to the impossible Bakugou the entire time. That motivation had inspired him as much as the others of their class, and somehow had transformed into a drive that kept them all going ever since that day.

How far had they come so far, partly following Midoriya? How far were they going to go? Surely further than expected because he was there as well.

He'd come to U.A. to become a Hero, and Satou had no intention of backing down from that. Cooking, as much as he enjoyed doing it, was something secondary to that.

Somehow though, hearing such high praise of it from Midoriya, whose own actions he admired, Satou thought to himself, he shouldn't ever let either of those drives fade.


	12. Sero Hanta Rules The Skies

"Oh man, this is the best! I'm almost too perfectly suited to this, know what I mean-"

A blur of green shot past Sero, even as he swung out over the many buildings of the Gamma Playground. This was a test, a race to examine rescue response time. A race Sero had gone into with absolute confidence.

He'd launched himself high, swung up over the buildings and was already making great strides. In the skies he was one of the most agile of all of Class 1-A, outstripping even Tokoyami – who could use his Quirk to grasp and throw himself from building to building – and Bakugou – whose explosive powers made for rapid movement, but just couldn't cover the same distances as Sero.

Yes, to this very moment, Sero had enjoyed dominion in the skies, without true competitor.

Suddenly he wondered if that would always be the case.

"Wha- MIDORIYA?"

He couldn't believe it, almost couldn't maintain enough composure to keep on swinging. He did though, his tape caught another building and reeled him in but, goddamn, Midoriya was already so far ahead. How was he this goddamn fast? How was he that freaking agile? This wasn't anything like he'd ever shown before and whoops wait there he goes, he slipped off a pole and fell on his face. Poor guy.

"Good job, young Sero!" All Might's praise, alongside the sash he was presented, certainly alleviated Sero's immediate concerns. In the end he'd still been first to arrive at the rescue point, and at the very least his crown of 'sky ruler' was not being stolen. Yet. But when it was all done and training was concluding, he still had that moment captured in his memory, something he was sure he wouldn't shake.

The sight of Midoriya shooting right past him faster than he could ever go. What the hell had that even been?

Well, only one way to find out.

"Yo Midoriya!" Sero felt the guy jump as he threw an arm over his shoulder, steered him into the conversation, "How about grabbing a bite to eat with me later, I got a world of questions for ya!" Iida and Uraraka were on Midoriya-defense-duty immediately, but Sero blew off their concerns. He just wanted to hang out, they knew him. It was cool.

Somehow it was Midoriya who talked them down, which was nice of him, and Sero smiled when they had a plan to hang out later. He hadn't really spent any time around Midoriya before – Kaminari, Kirishima, Ashido and Hagakure being the crew he usually rolled with – but that didn't meant he shouldn't broaden his horizons! A good dude got to know all his fellow classmates, and as it turned out he'd been slacking. So no more of that then.

It was just a small little place the two went to eat at, served a skewer and sitting outside in the evening light. This was the talking place he liked – he'd had a few heart-to-hearts with some of the others here already. As it turned out, Sero was easy to talk to. He still had to be proactive about it though. Still had to do the invites.

Perhaps by the end of this all he'd have taken every one of his classmates to eat here. Probably not all of them though. But the thought was nice.

"So!"He clapped his hands, causing Midoriya to jump, "What the hell?"

"Uhhh..." Midoriya's drawn out noise of nothing didn't sway Sero in the least, he tilted his hands down, pointing his fingers at Midoriya. His eyes were focused on him. No getting out of this. "Is there a problem?"

'Is there a problem' he says, hahahahahaha. Hah. HAH! Sero clapped his hands one more time, no joking around here. He had to know, he was dying of curiosity. So if Midoriya was gonna play hardball, he'd go hard. There was nothing that got in the way of a curious Sero Hanta. He insisted on that.

"Your Quirk, my dude!" He spread his arms wide, kind of trying to imitate Midoriya as he had jumped right past him earlier that day, "How the hell did you do that? Last I saw you were breaking your arms into little-bitty-pieces in the Sports Festival and now THIS? You move like that and you're going to give us all a run for our money, I bet you would have rolled Aizawa's Quirk Apprehension at the start of the year without a problem if you coulda done that then. So how'd you do it, what's the deets?"

"It's..." Midoriya was drawing his words, hiding secrets some might accuse. Sero didn't care about that though, he wanted to hear what was said first. You can't judge someone for their truths or lies til they're talking, after all. "I'm calling it Full Cowl, it's... using my Quirk throughout my entire body evenly. That balances it out, and stops it from backfiring on me."

Oh, huh. So Midoriya had been using his Quirk wrong all this time before? Crazy; how do you even make it this far that way? Guess he'd just needed the right environment to figure it out then. Fair enough. "So you picked that up in Field Training?" Midoriya nodded emphatically, meaning whoever he'd gone to had helped him figure it out. Well that was cool then. Guess that meant they'd have to get used to fast as hell Midoriya instead of punching buildings in half Midoriya. Less cool overall but also less suffering for Midoriya which was more cool? So it either balanced out or probably ended up on the better overall side.

Actually definitely on the better overall side, Midoriya was a cool dude, if he wasn't breaking himself every time he got in a fight that rocked. Hell yeah. Sero smiled wistfully.

"So I guess that's the end of super-crazy punches then, yeah? Man that was scary though. But if it wrecks your body to pack all your Quirk together, then it's kinda not that great. Glad you figured out a way to use it that doesn't mean hospital visits every time."

"Oh!" Midoriya seemed surprised by the remark, and shook his head. Oh? Sero leaned in, interested in hearing more. He loved gossip and this was kind of like gossip so he was right in on it. Tell all, Midoriya, tell all. "No, I could do that, I'm just not able to safely. Full Cowl is just using some of my power all the time, not all of it at once. That's it."

Huh, okay then. So he learned to use only a portion of his power, and that was enough to not break him. Cool. Cool.

...

Wait a second.

"Wait, wait wait wait, exactly how much power are you using right now? You went so goddamn fast and moved so crazy that there was no way I could keep up, what was that? Fifty percent? Fifty-five?" It couldn't be less, right? That'd be insane. Midoriya would be crazy strong.

But what if his full power meant he could move equivalent to the strength to ruin buildings like that. What if that was...

"Uh... it's... five?" Midoriya seemed unsure of himself in admitting that, but all Sero could do now was stare, the skewer he really wanted to eat halfway to his mouth and going no further. No way. No freaking way. Are you serious right now? That was... that was...

"DUDE!" He couldn't help the exclamation, even though he briefly felt bad internally at how Midoriya seemed to flinch back. Poor guy. Whole lotta crap he's been through, that's the fact. Not cool. "That's unreal, I can't even process that. What the hell-ass Quirk even is that you really are just like All Might!"

Now Midoriya was even more freaked out, his eyes were darting to the left and right, his breathing rate way up. Being compared directly to his personal hero must be overwhelming, especially since he couldn't even control the power he had yet. Sero got that. He understood.

"But no, man, that's so awesome. You're gonna be one of the best Heroes, you know that? So cool." Seriously, it was great. Truly and really, one-hundred percent no jealousy or anything. Sero though his Quirk was great and would do great things, and even though Todoroki absolutely destroyed him in the Sports Festival it wasn't really that bad. He could do plenty of things Todoroki couldn't.

... Maybe not so much when compared to a theoretical one-hundred percent Midoriya but even still Sero couldn't help but not mind at all. If he could think of one person who deserved to be the best Hero, it was Midoriya, who wanted it with everything he had. Really, who was better?

"Man..." Sero leaned back, now actually calmed down enough to eat some of the skewer. Damn these were good, he loved coming here. Heard all kinds of great stories from his friends when he took them out. But from Midoriya, jeeze he really hadn't expected that.

So cool.

"Uh... Sero?" Midoriya seemed nervous, but had something to ask all the same. Sero nodded, but also directed Midoriya to his skewers. Eat, my dude, they're really good! "Could you... not talk to the others about this? About my Quirk and... how I'm using it."

Oh, really? Did Midoriya think others might be jealous? Yeah possibly, his Quirk was kind of out-the-ass off the rails, but pretty much everyone in their class was chill and you couldn't really make Bakugou MORE mad. Could you? God Sero hoped not.

Still... "Uh, yeah, I can keep it on the down-low if you want. I mean I don't think it'll cause any trouble to talk about, but if you want to be the one to tell others when you're comfy with it, I won't say a thing. Lips sealed. Mmm." He pantomimed drawing a zipper across his lips, then immediately opened them again to eat some more of the skewer. So good.

"Thanks Sero!" Midoriya smiled that smile like a radiant sun then finally dug into his skewer, which hopefully hadn't lost too much warmth while they'd talked. He and Uraraka had similar smiles, though Uraraka's was more commonly seen. Kinda cute they had that in common, honestly.

Seeing the way Midoriya had moved had changed Sero's perception of him entirely, and he'd made a mental note to watch Midoriya from then on, to see what else he'd do. His Quirk was all power, not even named, but in its simplicity it could do the craziest of things. There was no way Midoriya wouldn't be the one to watch, the horse to bet on.

Sero wondered if he couldn't make some money on the side come next year's Sports Festival. He'd have to see.

Still though, as the days rolled by, as the twenty members of Class 1-A learned and grew, Sero remembered to check in with Midoriya, every now and then. So he got the feeling Midoriya was becoming far calmer and more confident, that he was focusing even more on moving forward on the path of Heroism.

And whenever he made another stride forward, impressed yet again with the power he had under his control, Sero nodded to himself. There's that cool guy again, doing his cool guy thing. Midoriya was kinda dorky and nervous, but that was part of the charm, and contrasted completely when he went hard at it. When he put on his game face.

Seriously, are there betting pools on the Sports Festival? There have to be.

Sero was going to make such a killing next year.


	13. Hagakure Tooru and Quirk Exhaustion

A Quirk is just like another muscle, when overused you'll suffer the consequences. That's a truth taken as given, no-one ever thinks too much about it. No-one ever makes the obvious logical leap.

If you over-use a muscle, you'll feel stress and strain within it. But what about a Quirk? With every last one being so different, what does over-use even mean? What could the consequences possibly be?

Perhaps fire will overheat the body, perhaps ice will chill it. Perhaps explosions sear the skin and power exhaust the body. Simple things there.

But what happens when it gets a little more abstract? A little more out of the norm, if you can believe in such a thing?

And what happens if you just never thought about it before, such that when that moment came, you were as surprised as anyone else? Interesting things indeed, that was for sure.

An interesting day, to say the least.

* * *

The question had come up the first day of her U.A. education, asked by Ashido but wanted to be asked by literally everyone paying attention. The new students, new friends(!), were getting to know one another, asking about how they went in the Entrance Exam, and as Hagakure was talking about the permanent invisibility her Quirk enforced upon her, Jirou clearly had something she wanted to say, yet couldn't seem to find the words.

Ashido could though.

"So how'd you fight the robots then?"

It was a good question, drew light laughter from Hagakure because of course it would be asked. All she had was the invisibility, so it didn't really make sense for her to be able to take out robots. But honestly, invisibility could be really scary. Since they weren't scanning for heat, the robots they were tasked to destroy couldn't spot her, leaving her free to her own devices. As it turned out, that kind of freedom really made taking them out easy.

With the amount of destruction going on, it was really easy to grab supplies to take them out. She'd tripped one up by pushing a bench right underneath it, jammed another one's legs with a bar of steel, little things she could do unnoticed. It all added up.

Uraraka and Yaoyorozu were nodding in agreeance with her, appreciating her hard work. And she did work hard! Honestly, when it came to physical activity, she didn't actually slow down. Ever, really. She really enjoyed it, moving about, jumping and running, it was just great to do! So Hagakure kept on going, no matter what. One of her charm points, she thought.

That was how she'd come this far, and how she'd keep on going beyond. It just made sense.

At the start of this all, that was what she believed.

* * *

"Are you okay, Hagakure?" There was concern in Ojiro's voice, cute as could be, but there was no need to worry. With a grin and a pump of her fist, only the second action recognisable by the way her sleeves moved, Hagakure answered in the affirmative. It might be a tough week of training for their class, but that didn't mean it was going to stop her or even slow her down. Nothing did!

"Ready to go, all the time!" Communication by sleeve movement was important – everyone had to know when she was flexing to show she was still a-okay. Ojiro seemed to accept that, which was good, he was such a worrier sometimes. Ever since he'd started working everyone harder in the training sessions he did he'd asked more and more if it was fine, and every time she'd had to reassure him to keep on going. She liked it when things were busy, she liked moving all the time. So don't back down, teach, keep it rolling! That's her way!

And okay, so maybe the double-up of class training – building up for the end of term exam – and Ojiro's own training – which she kept pushing him to make more intense – was a pretty hefty combo, but it wasn't like she had any concerns about that. Nothing had ever slowed her down before, nothing was about to now!

That thought was on her mind right up until the moment it began.

Aoyama was firing his laser, testing accuracy at a distance. Aizawa was overseeing the students practising, ensuring they didn't slack their training. Hagakure, nearby, was just finishing up another lap with some of her fellow students. Among them, Ojiro was the first to rub his eyes.

"Ugh, what is that?"

Pausing in confusion, some of the others started to rub their eyes as well. Spots, weird wavy lines, they complained about all manner of things affecting their vision. Amongst the six – Ojiro, Midoriya, Todoroki, Ashido, Jirou and herself – Hagakure seemed to be the only one not affected by whatever it was. That was… weird.

It wasn't like she didn't understand her own Quirk – her body naturally warped light that came into contact with it. All the time it was bent around her, rendering her invisible, but with a bit of focus it could be shaped in other ways. But it was really hard, and took a lot, so she rarely did it. Honestly just being invisible was good enough for most of her problems thus far. Anyway, point was, she definitely was not using her Quirk right now. She thought.

"Are you guys okay?" They were blinking blearily, trying to figure out what had happened, but it seemed like their vision was coming good. Okay, that was a relief. She really had no idea what was going on.

Behind her, having recovered enough to go again, Aoyama fired another of his lasers.

"Argh!" Immediately the five clutched their faces, Aizawa noticing and rapidly approaching them. A panicking Hagakure tried to explain that something was wrong, which was clearly obvious, as the five all tried to figure out what was affecting their vision so. Barking an order, Aizawa had the rest of the class ease up their practises, and took a close look at Ojiro's eyes. Didn't seem like anything was off.

"Woah, are you guys okay?" Kaminari was getting involved now, keeping a brief step back as the five continued blinking blearily and trying to focus their sight. For all of them to be that way, something really weird was happening, but he had no idea what.

Studying his surroundings, Aizawa frowned. Perhaps… "Bakugou!" He caught the attention of the teen, directed him to stand nearby, "make an explosion. A small one, thank you." To his credit, Bakugou complied, and took position with bursts of sparkling light. A moment after both he, Aizawa, and Kaminari all covered their eyes.

"Hagakure," hearing her name come out of Aizawa's mouth in an almost growl made her jump, and she very nervously stood at attention, "your Quirk."

"Huh?" Oh no no no no! "No no, this can't be my Quirk, I'm not using it! I swear I'm not! And and and if I were using my Quirk it'd be obvious, because there'd be a lot of light! Plus it would just blind, not… do this." Right? There was no way it was her Quirk.

Right?

He'd uncovered his face now, squinting a little but better off than the others who had already received a double dose of refracted light from Aoyama's lasers. Aizawa's eyes seemed to be trained on her invisible face. "You haven't been overworking yourself, have you?"

Had she? No, not really, no more than usual. Sure, she felt a little bit tired, which was weird because that was very rare for her, but she definitely wasn't overworked. Definitely! "No."

"Yes," Ojiro answered in the same moment. She stared at him in shock. "You've been spending more and more time not talking as much as normal, just resting. You move around like normal when someone asks you to, but by yourself you've been doing less and less. You're tired."

And now she was completely stunned. Was she tired? She didn't think she was!

"All six of you need to go to Recovery Girl right now." Aizawa wasn't playing games, the tone in his voice brokered no argument. If Hagakure's Quirk was playing up due to physical exhaustion, then she needed to be looked at, while the others all could at least do with being outside of the sun's light. Now that he was aware of it, even in natural light there was a strain to his eyes when looking at the invisible girl.

Generally overuse of a Quirk was what caused negative effects, but for a Quirk always in use, if she was overworking her physical self, there'd be natural consequences. Seemed they'd discovered one.

Well, better now in training than out in the field.

"Get going."

Bakugou and Kaminari had backed off, now also aware some weird eye-searing Quirk stuff was going on when too close to Hagakure. Everyone else, interested but keeping a distance, watched and spoke amongst themselves. This was entirely unexpected. They hoped things would be fine.

"Ugh, forget it." Jirou shut her eyes tight, holding a hand over them to help her relax to the darkness. "It'd be easier just to hear my way around than try and focus through this." Thanks to her Quirk, Jirou's hearing allowed her to navigate even in darkness, and she took point with Hagakure in leading the others. Trying to see was honestly painful, so being led would be better. The other four, Ojiro, Midoriya, Ashido and Todoroki, consented to be guided, which really freaked Hagakure out. Had she done something so terrible? She was very worried now, and kept asking if they were okay as they went. But each time when one tried to open their eyes they shut them again and complained it hurt. Oh no. Oh no.

When Recovery Girl saw to them, the first one she went to was Midoriya, checking his eyes. Once she'd examined that, she turned to Hagakure, gave her something to drink that would revitalise her, and had her sit down and rest. Apparently that eased up her Quirk's activity, as Recovery Girl then turned to check the other four, one by one.

Each time though, she said with confidence, their eyes were fine. Just a little stunned by the wavelength of light Hagakure had unwittingly formed. Somehow she'd stumbled onto a very potent refraction, though she guessed it wouldn't be one easily replicated. That was the truth, Hagakure had no idea her Quirk was even doing anything. She wondered if there was a way to learn to do that in future. Maybe…

"For the moment," Recovery Girl's professional advice was, "All of you take it easy. Keep your eyes covered, and after an hour of rest you can check to see if things have improved. The empty room next door you can stay within."

So that was how it was; six students of U.A.'s Class 1-A sat themselves in an empty classroom, five wore blindfolds, and the invisible sixth nervously made sure to keep in her chair. This was one-hundred percent her fault and she felt terrible about it. She hadn't even had the slightest clue she was overworking herself, so this was so out of left field. She just… didn't know what to say.

"Man," Midoriya was the first to break the silence, something surprising in and of itself. Usually he responded, but rarely did he begin a conversation, "this would be the perfect time for no-visibility training."

Ashido and Ojiro immediately lost it, hitting the desks almost howling with laughter. It was so out of left field and so very Midoriya that the full absurdity of the situation just crushed them. Hagakure, the only one who could see, was well aware Todoroki and Jirou were both restraining smiles as well. Wow, Midoriya the comedian, who would have thought?

"Ahhh," first to speak, Ashido turned her head, still lain down on the desk, "Mido you're the best. That was the funniest thing."

"It's a little more aggressive than just blindfolding, I'll admit." Now Todoroki was in on the joke and Ashido was almost shoving her fist into her mouth to keep from bursting into peals of laughter. Jirou's foot was rapidly tapping against the ground, which was apparently a sign of laughter she showed when trying to restrain herself. That was something Hagakure hadn't noticed before. Kind of cute.

For real though, she was still so embarrassed, and while the others were apparently keen on making jokes at the situation now, she was still very apologetic. Frowning, she opened her mouth to speak.

"I'm really sor-"

"Don't worry about it." Ojiro, Ashido and Midoriya all said some variant of that in basically the same breath, surprising her so much her mouth clamped shut again. Was it really okay? They were sitting here with eyes bandaged because the light actually hurt, and it was entirely on her. It wasn't okay to her.

"Quirk Exhaustion's very real!" Midoriya said it and he only spoke with that kind of confidence when something was an absolute. "And it's hard to expect it to get you if you're only burning out physically. It wasn't your fault at all, you had no idea!"

That sort of reassurance, from him more than anyone it was somehow calming. Ashido was too easy-going and Ojiro almost too reassuring, but Midoriya tended to spend a lot of time thinking about everything. So when he said something in confidence, it meant a lot. Hagakure felt her own heartbeat chill out, and a little internalised blaming wore off. Not her fault.

"Well," Ashido was leaning back in her chair, precarious given no sight, but she didn't seem to care, "guess we just need to find something to do while we wait for our eyes to come good."

Jirou turned with a grin on her face. "Shiritori?"

The immediate burst of laughter was somewhat mitigated by Ashido losing it so hard she fell out of her chair, needing to be rescued from the floor by Hagakure while trying to recover from the fit Jirou had put her in. How was everyone such a comedian right now?

Apparently being able to laugh in the face of trouble was a Hero's quality too.

Hagakure learned a lot in that hour. She learned that Ojiro had written home to his parents about teaching his fellow students and they'd immediately sent a heavy package of instruction tomes to give him better tutelage abilities. She learned that Ashido had a storied history as party-coordinator, that went back way beyond her efforts to get their class together for events.

She learned that Todoroki was still unconfident in his fire – which came as surprise to anyone who saw him fight – and that Jirou's father kept asking her to get an autograph from All Might.

And, paying attention to when he spoke and answered questions from the others – questions shared to pass the time – she learned more about Midoriya, who she'd really only observed as a casual friend before. He was mostly always quiet, but when he believed in something he spoke in unquestionable confidence. He was still getting used to his Quirk, only having properly learned how to control it this year – which was such a weird thing she thought at first, before realising she probably still didn't have proper control over her own. His father was always away from home, and his poor mother was always stressed with worry about him.

And he was doing everything he could to be the best Hero he possibly could.

When Recovery Girl checked in on them in an hour, three of the five hit by Hagakure's Quirk were cleared to go, leaving only the two closest to Hagakure at the time her Quirk had struck out to remain for a little longer. Ashido, Ojiro and Todoroki told them to take it easy, no longer with excuse to be outside class, leaving her, Jirou and Midoriya behind. A slightly less active talking group, she realised.

So she took the lead, encouraged them both, and learned more. It was to her surprise how much she got into it, just… talking with them, the three sharing stories. Jirou was versed in many instruments, and had seen a lot of bands already. Midoriya knew basically every Hero there was, and could tell a story about each. She relieved a few moments from younger years, sporting activities she always excelled within.

To be a good Hero with her Quirk, she'd needed to ensure she'd never stop moving when needed. That was how she was.

But maybe, just once in a while, she should take it easy. Turned out that was important too. Who knew?

Before the hour was up both Midoriya and Jirou had removed their blindfolds, blinked blearily and confidently announced they could see. Still slightly embarrassed, Hagakure found herself reassured by them all the same. Take it easy and relax, there's always tomorrow to get back to it. She nodded quietly.

Though it had come out of an accident, and at first she'd been terrified she'd hurt her friends, at the end of the day Hagakure couldn't be too upset. That time spent just… being, talking with people and getting to know some she didn't know as well before, it was nice! It was just… really really nice.

And so when in future the twenty students moved into Heights Alliance, as Jirou showed off her room Hagakure wasn't surprised. When Todoroki focused in on his fire in Quirk training, she was one of the few not to ask why he wasn't using ice to the same degree.

When Ojiro started telling stories about his parents' continued demands to know how the training he was giving was going, she laughed in understanding. When Ashido threw another of her classic parties, she saw it coming a mile away.

When Midoriya Izuku carved his name into the annals of Heroism, yeah, that wasn't a surprise at all.


	14. Yaoyorozu Momo's Confounding Conundrums

For each and every last student of Class 1-A, there is a different answer to the question of 'what do you like best about Yaoyorozu Momo'. Some would praise her analytical skills, others her dedication to improvement – of both self and others – while some would simply admire her incredible Quirk. Many would call her a good friend to have.

And every last one would refer to her ability to challenge the mind.

"Okay," heads raised as Yaoyorozu spoke, the tone in her voice instructing them that her next puzzle was ready. Eager listeners waited, wondering what its form would be this time. Her ability to compose them, challenges that teased and tested, it was incredible, and the mindtwisters she unleashed upon her fellows were always well received.

It certainly helped that the candy she offered as reward for first to solve was some of the most expensive foreign gourmet stuff imaginable. Seriously, it was incredible.

"A Villain has begun torching an office building at night. Four of you are aware of them and are capable of acting with the confidence and rational necessary to begin rescue operations. Quirks are: stone-skin, expanded eyesight, crane – the bird, not the machine – and prehensile hair. Assume five to ten in need of rescue per floor, six floors, you start on the fourth, Villain is outside of the first. The fire escape has been destroyed. Best course of action, go."

Quirk puzzle today. Immediately Midoriya and Iida were on that, the first having gone into a classic muttering storm while the second was scribing out countless notes on paper. Having already finished necessary studies, they had hung around with the others still going because Yaoyorozu was clearly composing her next challenge. And they loved those challenges as much as anyone else.

"Do any of the rescuees have Quirks that make them difficult to handle?"

"Any that are responding to the flames in a manner other than fear?"

"What of room layouts and available materials?"

"No; no; if it sounds like it should be there you can assume it is."

Kaminari, Kirishima and Tokoyami were also in on the challenge, part of the group of half their class studying in the base level of Heights Alliance at the time. The others were thinking too, but keeping their silence. Whether puzzles of words or numbers, logic, abstract thinking, or Quirk challenges – whenever she put one out it was often a race to be the winner. Whether that was for the prize, or the honour, everyone had managed to get into the spirit of it. And that did mean everyone.

"The fire sprinklers come on."

Heads swivelled to look at Bakugou, who rarely chimed in on Yaoyorozu's puzzles and never accepted the rewards for solving them. He stared defiantly back at those looking at him, causing them to look away, a trademark surly expression on his face. That was right, Quirk puzzles were what usually got his attention.

He seemed to be focusing a lot more on strategy these days.

"Naturally." As Yaoyorozu nodded, Kaminari and Kirishima slumped in their chairs. Each had been halfway to a solution, but the basic logic of 'buildings naturally have fire sprinkler systems' had skipped them by. You never take one of Yaoyorozu's puzzles at face value. Never.

"So regular evacuation is fine even without a fire escape, you don't need help to do that. Eyes at best could be an assistant going from floor to floor, with Hair because they shouldn't go near the Villain. But Stone and Crane should be distracting the Villain before Heroes arrive, reducing the amount of flame being made." Bakugou ticked off the four against his fingers, laying out a cut and dry solution to the problem at hand.

"That's an answer." Yaoyorozu gave a clear and neutral response to Bakugou, who immediately looked more annoyed. Now he was apparently missing something too. What else was she hiding up her usually absent sleeves?

"Everyone needs to be helping with evacuation." Midoriya's response caused everyone to turn back to him, their ideas now all thrown aside. Even Iida looked put out. "The building will collapse before everyone is out if the four aren't working together."

Oho, that was quick.

"It's a Villain, not a throwaway criminal. Their action has purpose. But it's obvious a building won't burn down when applying fire like that, not at the rate needed before Heroes arrive. So it's not the attack that's the threat. It's a cover. But the point of the challenge is still building evacuation. Meaning the building is still at threat."

Midoriya's clear gaze settled on her as Yaoyorozu restrained a smile. He'd taken no time at all to get that far. "Something else is going to destroy the building, immediate evacuation is the sole priority."

"So how do they do it?"

"From the top down, Stone can break walls to speed escape, Eyes can locate everyone on each floor the fastest, while Crane and Hair can assist people in navigating – airlift/lower those who can't take created exits quickly or safely. If all four collaborate, I would say roughly one person per ten seconds can be put on course to safety, that's fifty to one-hundred seconds per floor, an average of seventy-five over six, or seven and a half minutes." Nearby, Bakugou looked annoyed that Midoriya had adopted his naming scheme.

"Not bad." Yaoyorozu nodded. The numbers were smooth enough, and Midoriya had gained the basic logic of evacuation as well as the hidden trick behind the challenge. However… "Now do it in five."

It took a brief moment for that challenge to properly sink in, before Midoriya's widening eyes narrowed as he looked down, back to his muttering. Iida was tearing through paper after paper, and Bakugou's expression was set in angry focus. Some of the others had stepped out of the challenge, while some still persisted, but the race seemed to be between those three right now. Yaoyorozu smiled lightly as they went.

* * *

Over the course of the next few days, each had approached her and asked questions, wanting more context behind the challenge. Each answer she gave revealed nothing of whether or not they were on the right track, and they ran none of their ideas by her. Just gathered more information.

It certainly wasn't an easy challenge, Yaoyorozu had spent some time designing it, but it had a direct and effective solution. It was just reaching it that was the challenge.

The challenges she levied, they were interesting things for her as much as her fellow classmates. Creating them was something that took keen thought and tested her often, while posing them against others allowed her to learn how they thought and handled differing problems. Each student took to different challenges with different abilities – while some were masters of spatial thinking, others were brilliant at snap decisions. Strategy was concentrated more in some students, but each had the ability to solve problems in their own way.

And when she'd once split out groups and given each of them a challenge, seeing how they worked together to solve that challenge was fascinating as well.

In creating and giving these tests to her fellows, Yaoyorozu Momo sharpened them and herself, while learning how best everyone around her thought. She'd learned much, and kept it all in mind. As Vice-President of Class 1-A, it was her responsibility to know how every member of those she cared for fit together.

So she knew that Kirishima could interface Bakugou reliably to most others to work together, knew that high energy figures like Ashido and Hagakure kept Aoyama in line, knew that Mineta followed Shouji's lead and, like everyone else, knew that Bakugou and Midoriya were like oil and water.

It was frustrating too, because when it came to logical compatibility for problem solving, they'd make a perfect team. In the first day after she'd leveraged her challenge, they'd each asked her the necessary questions that, combined, would make for the perfect answer she'd devised. But each only had half of that equation, and there was no way to sum them together. It was stupid.

She'd seen them struggle from the beginning, same as everyone else had. Bakugou was a genius with incredible combat ability, savagely effective instincts, and a brutally quick mind. Midoriya had a gift for quickfire strategy, endless determination, and a passion for heroism that couldn't be beat. If they were able to work together, if you discounted their horrific relationship, they'd form one of the scariest duos she could imagine.

But what was between them was so terrifyingly toxic that absolutely no-one wanted to set a single foot near the entire situation. Kirishima deciding to was at best a hastily made decision, but she hadn't criticised at the time when Jirou's outburst had led to the decision. Maybe she hoped he could resolve it.

But there was just no way.

"Do you remember the brief hours you spent as Class President?" Midoriya paused when she said that, having been about to step away after his latest question – 'what do those acting understand about their environment we don't' – had received an answer. He seemed considerate of the question, nodding, but also confused. It hadn't been much at all.

"Do you think if it was now you'd still give it to Iida?" Midoriya had changed a lot over the months, developed and honed himself, become far more confident in speaking to and leading others. It wasn't just desperate moments of heroism anymore, he actively took part in aiding others around him now. His nominations before had likely come out of less understanding of suitability and more friendship, given all he'd shown thus far. Now though, now even Yaoyorozu wouldn't write him off as unsuitable for this.

But would he?

"Iida would still do a better job." Midoriya's answer was clear and concise, showing no pride or ego, simply raw pragmatism. Impressive. She could only respect that.

"I don't think this challenge will last much longer, if it's not you someone else will solve it." Midoriya and Bakugou were both almost there, Iida, Tokoyami and Jirou close behind. She'd intended it to take a week to best, but it was going to be three days in the end.

She'd need to work even harder on the next one.

* * *

Tokoyami and Bakugou had it at the same time, each found her in the same moment and each insisted on giving their answer first. She'd separated them, so each wouldn't overhear the other, and heard both. Both had it, the answer she'd devised, and she offered them each the usual reward. Bakugou naturally refused, he was in this to prove he was the best, not to be bribed with candy. Tokoyami accepted gallantly.

Two hours later, it was Midoriya who approached her. She did not reveal it was solved yet, gave him the chance to give his answer.

And here is how he surprised her.

Bakugou and Tokoyami had met the five minute limit, realising that the guaranteed destruction of the building meant collateral damage was meaningless. Once appropriately briefed, they were able to formulate methods the quartet of Quirks acting as temporary Heroes could take in order to evacuate the building as fast as they possibly could.

Midoriya however…

"The moment they become aware a Villain is applying fire to the base of the building, something can be concluded to be wrong. You clarified the Villain is recognisable, meaning they must accept intelligent intent in the action. But the fire won't do nearly enough before a Hero arrives. It's a distraction. There has to be a reason for it, for drawing attention to the building and making it difficult to escape by pre-destroying the fire escape."

Basic deductions, acceptable when superimposing oneself in as one of the four, she nodded in response. Continue.

"But that doesn't change basic responsibility, you can't assume that the distraction doesn't also place risk on those within the building. Immediate evacuation is essential, whether or not you're sure the building will collapse. That's the core tenant of the challenge."

Correct again, Midoriya had laid out the design behind it. Create a situation with an obvious reason, where the reason is in fact false, but the necessary response remains the same. But what was he leading up towards?

"The building can be saved."

What? She felt her eyebrows raise, looking at Midoriya before her so full of confidence. No it couldn't, she hadn't designed that option. There wasn't something that could do such a thing, was there?

Her mind raced to try and beat Midoriya to the point.

"I've narrowed down the range of possible actions that could cause the building to collapse between the five and seven and a half minute window," Midoriya was continuing, eyes focused as he spoke, "Evacuation wouldn't result in safety if it was something ridiculous like an earthquake strong enough to take down the building, or some form of meteor – it has to be a Quirk. And a specific one at that."

She had designed the Quirk responsible for the building's fall, the secondary Villain being covered by the first to hide their existence. Had Midoriya seen it? No-one else had even considered it.

"It's Stress, isn't it?" Oh wow, he had. "A slow-charge shot that causes deformation in materials it strikes. The secondary Villain, they'll be striking through the flames at a key point to begin the building's demolition."

Knowing that… could he take the four Quirks she'd given and make a counter? Her own was formulating now, Crane could airlift Eyes to a position of scouting, their eyesight allowing them to see through darkness and distraction. With roughly three minutes of scouting time, was it possible to locate the secondary Villain? Yeah, it was. Before the shot was fired, the quartet would know the location it would be striking.

Given that…

"It would be deadly to Stone, but providing the Quirk was strong enough, Hair could mitigate its effects on the building and reduce the damage below the collapse point. Braced by Stone to best aid their stance. You told me I could make one of the Quirks low-Hero level if needed – Stone would be the choice for rapid evacuation, but Hair for this. That's my answer."

Wow.

She blinked, shaking her head slightly in disbelief. She'd given that option without even realising it, it wasn't until Midoriya had revealed he understood the secondary Villain that she'd realised the way to do it. A flaw in her puzzle that he immediately took to claim a far different victory. Or… rather a bonus condition even she'd been unaware of. That was…

"I didn't see that coming."

There was a smile to him both pure and genuine, thrilled to have proposed an answer that stunned even her. It wasn't like she was perfect, there were challenges she couldn't do that others could, but this one had caught her off guard.

"Sometimes you frighten me, Midoriya." Honestly? That was true. She'd kept her calm and evaluated the entire Battle Trial fairly, but Midoriya's punch had still spooked her internally. What sort of kid gets a Quirk like that? It was scary, honestly.

It had turned out to be the best possible hands, all things considered, and once Midoriya had stopped breaking himself every time he took a swing things were really looking up, but it was hard to forget that if he went all out there was very little he couldn't destroy. Combine that with a passionately reckless but analytical hero mind, and you got a real scary guy you couldn't help but follow.

There was a lot more everyone had to learn in their studies at U.A., and Midoriya was by no means exempt of that. She'd posed a challenge based around evacuation and regular folks, yet Midoriya had still managed to apply true heroics to it. Of course he had.

So she gave respect, and an entire package of those chocolates everyone competed to win, but made sure to plan her next challenge even better. She was doing her part too, for everyone, so it wouldn't do to slacken on the honing she could provide.

The Heroes each of them would become would be determined not only by themselves but by those around them.

Yaoyorozu Momo intended to be part of a class of the greatest of them all.


	15. Aoyama Yuuga Always Sparkles Brightly

There is a certain flair Heroes take on that draws others towards them, lifts them up and allows them to lead. Charisma, righteous determination, heroic drive, all of these things are essential, but must still be presented correctly to truly communicate. For some that is natural, for others impossible. And for Aoyama Yuuga, it is indeed a state of being.

Heroic Etiquette, a topic never dealt in until it is far too late. U.A. is busy honing the intelligence and strength of its students, ensuring their capabilities are always growing, but even when the topic of conduct is breached, it is never pushed quite far enough. A good Hero is an easy role to fill, but becoming a great Hero demands great effort. You must not only surpass the challenges of the world, you must do it with unflinching style and grace. Only in such absolute victory do you truly communicate the ideals of Heroism to the world. Only then.

"Non, non, non, young Midoriya, with more grace this time!" And if no one else would take up that role of tutor, clearly it fell to him. "Think of how the world will see you!"

As far as first students went, Midoriya was a superb candidate. He had all the ideals of Heroism memorised already, and was working through each and every last one. His Quirk was… plain, if unreasonably powerful, but that did not mean it could not be shown in the finest of lights. One must merely take care of presentation.

"Aoyama, I don't think this is going to work."

Costume upgrades would come later, when his protégé was done, but basic accessories to better highlight his movements were a good place to start. If Midoriya was devoting his combat style to kicking – somehow an even less stylish point of origin than punching, if such a thing were possible – he would need to capture the imagination with each swing of his legs. Luckily for him, Aoyama's sense for design knew neither limits nor boundaries, and he'd have Midoriya the picture of elegance in no time at all. Not a problem.

"Nonsense, it merely requires refinement." He was starting small. Lights set in the shoes Midoriya wore would streak through the air as he kicked, leaving an arc of colour in the wake of his movement. That alone... Aoyama witnessed within his mind a spinning tornado of light, strike after strike, foes both dazzled and defeated. Glorious. "The correct movements to best display your strikes, they will come in time, simply focus upon the basics for now."

Midoriya looked on the verge of sighing, which was no good at all, Aoyama would not have his first student of the arts of Heroic Etiquette become despondent. This was as important to him as it was to Midoriya, it would not do to have a failure at the beginning. Not one bit.

"Now now, worry not," he consoled the clearly depressed about lack of style Midoriya, "there is still much time to grow. Before you leave U.A. I have every bit of faith that you will be able to dance with the light of the stars. Simply follow my lead and you will see."

Naturally, Aoyama was one who practised what he preached. Light sparkled around him, the belt that allowed his Quirk to manifest glowed, and he spun, tracing light through the air. His laser, epitome of elegance, was powerful and beautiful, as all of the greatest Heroes should be. Caught within its thrall, he could not help but laugh. Ahhh, so wonderful.

When one foot caught the other and he tripped, falling flat on his face, that was slightly less graceful. Ow.

"Aoyama!"

Midoriya was at his side in a moment, concern on his face as it was in all things, from the smallest and most minor of inconveniences to the greatest and most terrifying of disasters. He cares oh so much, this one, a trait that would be far more respectable if he had any ounce of a poker face. It would be a steep hill to climb with him on Aoyama's back, but Aoyama Yuuga was not one to accept defeat so readily. He smiled.

"Clumsy feet, my my, I was caught off-guard by my own magnificence as well – my powers clearly too much for any. I hope you were not too overwhelmed in seeing it, young Midoriya, you too have the potential for such sights!" 'Young Midoriya' was the title of his first student, which Midoriya seemed to be weird about hearing each time. Possibly because the gap between their ages was only two months. Probably that.

"Aoyama..." Was he really not that into it? Midoriya seemed thoroughly exasperated. Oh dear, oh dear, were his lessons really not imparting? That was no good at all, no good. Oh what should Aoyama do next?

"I appreciate that you're trying to help, but I don't think this is really necessary."

"Of course it's necessary!" Ohhh, Midoriya was meant to be one of the first to properly understand, how had Aoyama failed in communicating the importance of such? He could not let this rest, oh no, he would impart the gallantry and grace of Heroism if it was the last thing he did. He placed his name and his pride upon it.

"Heroism isn't just about defeating Villains, it's about uniting the people! And the only way to unite them is to make their eyes follow you in everything you do!" All Might had done it. Aoyama knew, without question, that the Symbol of Peace was so not only because of power beyond limit, but by the nature he projected to the world. Embodying that was no mean feat, but the world needed others who could do so.

Other likes him.

"You're not wrong," Midoriya seemed to understand that much at least, which was good. Of their class he was already one of those most capable of uniting his fellows, they gathered around him and trusted in him readily. So did Aoyama, truth be told. But there was always more to do and better heights to seek and no-one else was really chasing the same lofty peaks Aoyama was. They were becoming smarter and stronger, more capable of handling complex and terrifying situations, but they never refined the appearance they gave to the world. You can't ignore that.

If the world looks to you and sees someone struggling and fighting, that's just another fight. If the world looks to you and sees grand victory standing over the ruins of villainy, then that's an entirely different ball game altogether. That's what the world needs to see and rally towards, those who show themselves as being the absolutes of Heroism.

Aoyama believed that fully and he knew Midoriya understood. That was why he had chosen him.

"But I don't think it's just about... flashing lights and the perfect movements. I think it's the self you project to the world. It's a lot deeper."

Ah, hmm.

Midoriya wasn't wrong, per se, but that sort of depth, you don't really get taught that, you forge it with experience and effort. It wasn't like Aoyama didn't understand, but he knew that was something you come to with time. But that also didn't mean you should start without awareness of yourself and your projection to the world. It was far better to grow into greatness with as strong of a start as you can make, after all.

Sometimes Aoyama listened in to Midoriya's talks of heroism and growth, sometimes the two traded ideas. There were... differences, conflicts in ideals of stance, but at their core each simply wanted to be good. No, not good, great! And Aoyama respected that, truly. It was just that a core tenant he believed in unquestionably never really received the recognition he knew it should. So it fell to him to instruct others.

Even if they all seemed resistant to his words. They simply didn't yet understand, that was all. That was all.

"Let's start from the top, try and create a circle of light with your kick."

Midoriya sighed, but did return to the motions. He was at least respecting Aoyama enough to try. Good, that was good enough to begin.

He'd see his friend take on the highest of heroic ideals before the day was out.

* * *

"Aoyama dodge!"

A burst of laser from his navel jumped him to the side, the explosively released ball flying by where he had just been. Across the line separating ten from ten, Bakugou tsked and reached for another ball, prepared for another shot. All power no flair to that one, but Aoyama also knew a lost cause when he saw it. He was pleased to have been recruited onto the side of elegance.

Dodgeball is a classic of schooling, combining the time-honoured traditions of sport and violence into their purest form. Quirk Dodgeball was... well, it was definitely a way to make sure the members of Class 1-A kept on their toes.

Aizawa was overseeing it, of course, watching as the two groups of his students thoroughly attempted to win. Whether it was dealing with balls spiked with Mineta's orbs attached, explosive shots from Bakugou's hands, or throws from the invisible Hagakure – somehow never noticed until it was almost too late, it was certainly a challenge.

So while Midoriya dashed this way and that, Tokoyami grabbed every throw out of the air with his Shadow, and Yaoyorozu continued to add more to the maelstrom of flying balls, Aoyama took this chance to see poetry in motion.

Or, at least, to see where it should be.

The two groups were roughly balanced, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu nominated as captains by Aizawa and expected to draft one by one. He'd been one of the latter half picked, but those two were focusing entirely on core strategies, not so much on building the most stylish of teams. Alas.

"Uraraka!"

Oh ho ho, now that was almost far more interesting than evaluating the style and grace of his fellow students in action. Midoriya had leaped and intercepted another of Bakugou's explosive throws. Catching was for points, not outs, as that would extend the value of the game, the first side to one-hundred points declared the winner. It was roughly even at sixty to fifty-eight right now, Bakugou's side in the lead, but Midoriya had just added another point to theirs. So that was good.

More important however was the expression on Uraraka's face right now. Midoriya had covered for her while she was dealing with one of Todoroki's ice balls, smacking it out of the air and sending it flying up above the field. There were a number there now, pressed against the roof of the gymnasium, waiting for her to release and rain down upon the opposite side. That threat, covered by Yaoyorozu's production of more, was very dangerous indeed.

The other side were mostly trying to avoid her now. Mostly.

But she'd intercepted Todoroki and Midoriya had covered Bakugou and in that brief moment of heroism where Midoriya saved her from the hit, she'd worn an expression for the ages. Ah, how beautiful young love was, for that was what Aoyama was convinced he had seen. She'd gazed at him with wide eyes before shaking her head and slapping her cheeks, getting back into the action. Most everyone was too busy to pay attention to that.

Not him though.

A ball propelled by Satou struck him in the side of the head and knocked him clean over.

* * *

Aoyama watches for beauty and grace in his surroundings and his classmates, praises it when seen, encourages it when needed. Midoriya was full of potential, just requiring the right grooming. So he had taken that role upon himself.

Yet you cannot rush all things, and though Aoyama watches the flowers of romance bloom in this garden of youth, he knows not to push it to grow faster than it does. Simply progress with the nature of time.

Still, preparation was key, and as he continued to instruct Midoriya – who had managed to fail avoiding his second lesson – he thought about what advice he could slip in about earning the love of a woman's heart.

It was only right to add such things to his lessons of elegance, after all.


	16. Shouji Mezou Lifts Up Those Around Him

"Lift, Shouji, lift!"

Some trees were just made for climbing, and some students of U.A.'s Class 1-A unable to resist. While peaceful days had begun with just four, now half of their members were keen to arrange themselves in one of the many oversized trees throughout the campus grounds when given a chance. It was the in-thing right now.

As Ashido set her hands into the upper branches, a quick launch provided by Shouji at its base, she rapidly scrambled her way into the higher echelons of the great tree, Tokoyami and Ojiro the other two having set themselves up this high. A few more students were arranged lower than them – Kaminari, Hagakure, Uraraka and Sero – while Shouji, Asui, Mineta and Midoriya were hanging out at the base.

This was the way it should be. Kids having fun. Sometimes you just needed a moment like this, even if you were a Hero-in-training. The honest truth.

"Everyone's certainly into this." Midoriya wasn't that different in his evaluation, he'd already scaled and descended the tree earlier. Taking a break at the base right now was more to speak with the others than to avoid climbing. It was fun!

"It's great!" Mineta was bouncy today, though usually the topics he got into were about as off-putting as could be, leading the trio with him to deliver sidelong glances. Spotting them, he huffed, pouting slightly. "Climbing's fun!" There was a whine to his voice that made him seem like the most persecuted one could be. Somehow it didn't alleviate him to the others. "And if anyone climbing is wearing a skirt-"

Yep okay. One of Shouji's massive hands wrapped around the back of Mineta's collar before he could say much more and with little fanfare Mineta Minoru was launched into the upper region of the tree. Spotting him coming, Ojiro fished him out of the sky with his tail, depositing him in a new conversation. No filter, that one.

Midoriya chuckled. "It's a full-time job, isn't it?"

"It certainly keeps me busy." Shouji had somehow found himself unofficial caretaker of Mineta, who had taken a shine to him early on and tended to follow him around after that. Outside of Mineta's unflinching fixations he wasn't so bad, but whenever he got onto the tangent he tended to... stress... those around him. Generally the fastest solution was to remove him directly from the conversation. It wasn't always easy.

"He's lucky you're so nice," Asui, or Tsuyu rather as she preferred to be called, held nothing back, and honestly evaluated exactly what Mineta's attitude should be bringing upon him. Shouji wasn't one for friendly violence, but if Mineta managed to earn the wrath of one of the others he got the feeling he wouldn't be quick to step in. Though he sometimes wondered what it would take for him to learn.

"Anyway," Midoriya thankfully turned the topic, and the trio now moved back to the original point they'd started with. While Midoriya was the most tactical of the three by far, the best at formulating strategies and counters, Shouji and Tsuyu were both incredible information gatherers; Jirou and Sero competitive in sound and sight respectively while Kouda with animals available could outstrip them all.

In the wake of the Hero License Exam, members of the twenty discussed strategies and counters to what they had experienced. Most had been together at the beginning, aware that the majority of those competing would target them, and the plan had been solid until they'd been split and scattered.

From there it had become kind of touch and go. Split apart members had found success at differing points, but the majority of the class had only achieved victory at the very last minute, through uniting together again and crushing their opponents.

That they, as soon as they had grouped together, immediately steamrolled their opposition said a lot. What was said most clearly was, if they hadn't been broken apart in the beginning, the last minute tension would never have been as bad as it was.

So Midoriya had of course concluded that they needed better strategies to remain together and to counter separation tactics, as their class, aware of one another, had already honed their skills to synchronise. Aoyama's pillar of light had been inspired, if coincidental, but such an action was only needed because they'd been scattered in the first place. Countering even that... he was already thinking that many steps ahead.

Shouji Mezou respected Midoriya Izuku immensely. He was brilliantly quick to strategise, heroic beyond question, and loyal to his friends to an almost fault. The Villain attack on their summer camp, he knew it would take years and years for the viscerality of those memories to fade, for the pain and failure to disappear – even if in the end it had all been recovered from without a single permanent injury within their class.

But amongst all the pain and fear and stress, there was another moment he had captured in his memories, another moment that would not fade.

It was Midoriya Izuku forming a plan in an instant, a method by which he, Shouji and Todoroki could chase down the kidnapped Bakugou and Tokoyami. It was the voice he spoke with, the confidence and determination through the pain, the utter, unflinching, resolve to succeed. It was the first time Shouji had ever been so close to such absolute willpower. And the means by which he'd recognised it again, televised to the world just a few days later.

When he watched All Might's final battle against the worst Villain of them all.

Midoriya had been compared to All Might before, from the incredible power of his Quirk to his absolute fanboyism of the man. Indeed sightings of All Might and Midoriya speaking were reported amongst the class, the knowledge that Midoriya had been coached to use his Quirk less destructively known. It made sense, after all.

But there was another aspect that Shouji felt only a few understood, only a few had seen with their own eyes. It wasn't just his Quirk, that almost uncontrollable raw power, it was his very nature. Midoriya's endless drive and inability to back down, it was picture for picture how All Might himself was.

And that was inspiring, admirable and terrifying all at the same time.

"I think one of the most important things to rely on is those who can move others. Tsuyu, you and Shouji are two. Tokoyami and Sero could group others easily too."

"As for pillars we have Aoyama, Kaminari, Todoroki, and Bakugou." Tsuyu listed off those with the Quirks flashy enough to be seen from a distance. "Maybe not rely on Bakugou though."

"If worst comes to worst Yaoyorozu could probably create a spotlight." It was half-joke half-suggestion Shouji made, which Midoriya and Tsuyu both received appropriately, chuckling slightly while also nodding. She definitely could.

"If there are animals available Kouda could easily map an area and bring us all together."

"He and I both." Shouji's Quirk gave a wide range of abilities, the stacking of eyes, or ears, allowing him to gather a significant amount of the information around him. Midoriya nodded and agreed that he could be a centrepoint of a gathering strategy, as he would both be able to move others and scout them out when they were broken apart. But focusing on that would put him at a disadvantage without a safe place to work from, as whatever had caused them to break apart in the first place was likely still a threat.

"But it still doesn't solve being separated to begin with." Tsuyu hit the nail on the head, leading the topic right back to the start. Quick regroup methods were extremely important, but preventing separation was the key goal the three were attempting to put together right now. And that was no easy challenge.

"Let's start with what actually happened – Shindou's Quirk."

"It tore the battlefield apart," Tsuyu followed up on Midoriya's statement, "And threw everyone apart. I'm not even sure how to begin countering that."

"Jirou maybe?" The new equipment she'd received had allowed her to create shockwaves in the earth – Shouji had seen her do such moments before Shindou himself did, after all.

"I think the difference is too large," Midoriya shook his head at Shouji's suggestion, clearly deep in thought, "I don't think any single Quirk we have could stop Shindou's from occurring. I think what we need is a strategy to remain together even when the battlefield is ripped out from under us."

"Maybe if Todoroki simply creates an ice plate above the battlefield to catch us." This time Shouji's suggestion received a nod, though Midoriya still frowned. It was well understood that Todoroki's powers were not best applied in groups – he'd run off at the start of the fight and succeeded on his own after all. Cooperation in dense environments was not his strong suit with powers as far-reaching as his.

"We should all just get jetpacks!" Hagakure's suggestion inserted itself into the conversation as bluntly as she did, hanging upside-down off of one of the lower branches. Uraraka nearby looked a little put off by the suggestion, but that might solely be more because of the one they'd need to go to to actually get said jetpacks. She really didn't need another tour of Hatsume Mei's 'genius' (quotation marks) mind.

Midoriya's intent on strategy passed up and through the tree, little discussions breaking out here and there as people moved around, clambered up and down, and worked through the problem. There was no one easy answer, but there were a hundred partial solutions that, relied upon as a catalogue of responses, would go a long way to making their teamwork all the scarier. Shouji almost felt bad for the Villains who would face teams from this class in their full-fledged future. They wouldn't stand a chance.

* * *

"It's ridiculous, Shouji."

In the midst of Quirk Dodgeball, hauling shots with all his might, Shouji still managed room to pay attention to Mineta taking cover behind him, lacing balls with his Quirk for Shouji to throw. Apparently being covered to such a degree allowed him time to chat.

"What is?"

"Midoriya!" Passing another ball up, making sure Shouji grabbed the side not marked with a sticky orb, Mineta pointed forward. Across the line from them, Midoriya was intercepting an explosive throw from Bakugou out of the air, covering Uraraka as she blocked another of Todoroki's own. That alone was an impressive sight.

"You know the girls were up til midnight in the common room last night talking strategies! Strategies! Because Midoriya got the topic started earlier that day! How does he get people like that? It's unreal!"

Shouji frowned behind his mask, launching another ball. "And why do you know what they were talking about?"

"I… look, it doesn't matter!" Mineta fumbled and gave up, scrambling around at the back of the group to gather more balls. Between his balls getting stuck to the ground on the other side, Uraraka building up a storm of them under the ceiling, and Yaoyorozu popping another out of her body every half minute, this was really getting out of hand. The ball economy was in ruins. Won't someone think of the ball economy?

"The point is: everyone follows what he says! He comes up with thoughts and ideas and everyone just… runs with it. How does he do that? How do I do that?"

"Charisma and respect." Maybe he'd been hanging around Tsuyu too much, that one was as blunt as blunt could be. He could see Mineta's face fall hearing that. Too harsh?

"I can do that." He was pouting now, needing encouragement to keep the sticky balls going. Kaminari had been completely plastered to the back wall thanks to their combination, and while the other nine on that side – eight given Aoyama appeared out cold right now – were being far more cautious, all it took was one mistake to remove another from the game.

"Then do so." Shouji had to focus on avoiding, especially such that Mineta wasn't clobbered by an unseen ball if he moved. That left a little less than regular brainpower for higher conversations like 'why is Midoriya so incredible?'. He got the feeling that would be one to have a lot in future anyway.

"Okay I will! Just watch!" Just like that, Mineta was fired up. Well, if he wanted to emulate Midoriya, maybe that would help him branch away from more… controversial natures. It would certainly help his path to Heroism, no doubt.

Yet at this point, hearing another say they were going to follow Midoriya's lead in becoming a great Hero, it just felt like another fact of the matter. As far as Shouji was concerned, most of their class already had that thought in mind.

Him definitely amongst them.


	17. Kirishima Eijirou Pulls No Punches

Kirishima Eijirou had a problem.

It wasn't one of the fun problems like 'how do I sneak an extra of those cupcakes Satou made' or 'when should me and the others head out to see a movie next', nor one of the confusing problems like 'why does everyone keep asking me for advice on relationships when all I say is be upfront and honest about yourself'. No, this one was a real problem, one he'd been wrestling with for a long time now. One he was finally looking to resolve. One way or another.

Midoriya Izuku was an incredible person. His drive, his passion, his relentless energy and determination, such things were the epitome of manliness that Kirishima praised, and as such Midoriya numbered amongst the top of his class in people Kirishima respected completely. But there was another side to Midoriya, one less confident and strong-willed, that existed as well. Another that manifested only in certain situations, yet situations repeatable all the same.

The first time he'd introduced himself to Midoriya, amongst the storm of names his class was giving out, Kirishima had noticed it. Noticed how jumpy the guy was, how… unused… to being addressed with friendship he seemed to be. It continued onwards for a few weeks, Midoriya would flinch if you spoke to him, jump if you approached him without him aware of it, and stammer a little when trying to interact. The complete opposite of the strength he showed – mental, not just physical – when actually tested by the challenges of life.

Everyone had noticed it, no-one mentioned it. Because the cause was oh so clear. Oh so frustrating.

Bakugou Katsuki was a monster and Kirishima meant that in every best sense of the word in addition to some of the bad ones. He was impossibly capable, aware of everything around him, made snap judgements that seemed in tune with his classic violence but were always tempered by some sort of bestial wisdom. It took a little to warm to him, but when Kirishima did it was to discover someone with as powerful a passion and dedication to becoming a Hero as Midoriya. A similarity between them that he suspected neither had missed.

In all of their class it was unquestionable now that Kirishima was Bakugou's closest friend. The guy could be… blunt, yes, but he was honest too. And he worked hard, was determined to become a Hero, and never wavered. Kirishima respected that.

And as he got to know him more and more, he found more and more in Bakugou to be respected. Somehow it seemed that Bakugou had found the same, given how tolerant he'd become of Kirishima even when Kirishima slipped into the more classic friendly teasing he'd use on the rest of his friends. Taking a light shot at Kaminari meant nothing, he'd just get a smart-ass response back from the guy, but doing the same to Bakugou was like poking a stick of dynamite with a lit match.

Except… not. Bakugou didn't explode, rolled with it, and that had really stunned Kirishima the first time. He seemed so… normal, when just playing around as friends would. He seemed normal so often that you almost forgot, especially as time went by.

But no-one quite forgets and all it takes is for Bakugou and Midoriya to make eye contact for one second too long – for the first to scowl with anger and the second to tilt his gaze downwards – for it all to come rushing back. That one deep and overwhelming problem. What could you even do about that? He had no idea.

* * *

"Why the hell," the sound of a book hitting the table caused Kirishima to look up, a tone that annoyed from Jirou rare. What was eating her? "Was Midoriya such a mess at the start of the year?"

Ah shit.

"Jirou…" Please don't do this, not right now. Kirishima knew, he knew, but that doesn't mean it's right to talk about. She was smarter than he was, she had to understand that.

"No, it's shit," there was real anger on her voice, others around her looking with either complete surprise or base understanding. Kaminari was quietly eyeing Kirishima. Yaoyorozu wasn't looking at either, focusing still on the book in front of her. Or pretending to. Tsuyu looked directly at them both. "And you know it."

"Yeah." He did, he knew it and he hated it. But how did you even begin with that? It was so, so warped and terrifying, what was between those two, that even having them near each other put everyone on edge. How do you face that? "It's awful."

"It doesn't matter that things've improved, it can't just be allowed to fade away quietly. That's not right. For either of them." The room was dead silent besides Jirou and Kirishima talking, the topic well understood. How many had considered it so far? How many had been too scared to broach it?

If Midoriya were here he'd be flipping out right now. Not in anger, he never did anger to anyone around him, but he'd be demanding they drop it and back down, refuse to let the problem leave him and Bakugou. Why was he like that? What drove him to be that way? Kirishima didn't understand that, and that was one of the few things in his class he didn't.

"Neither of them are going to do anything about it though. And you can't just force the topic on either of them, that won't do anything helpful." He'd already had those thoughts, wondered what to do. But no answer had come to him, this problem way too complex for Kirishima to solve. He'd given up on it, and consented to simply feel terrible whenever the thoughts arose. What else could he do?

Jirou made a loud noise of complaint. "It sucks and it's stupid." And oh boy did Kirishima agree with her. He hated it too. But Jirou wasn't done yet, her anger not yet vented enough. She'd really been bottling this up, huh? "You know that Bakugou thought he was Quirkless up until Aizawa's first test, you know things had to be even worse before that. Before they came here."

He felt himself flinch. Yeah, given how Midoriya was at the start of the year, given how he was now with just a few months of friendship around him, it said a lot about what his life had been like before he came to U.A. Said a lot about what he'd gone through at the hands of the one person he knew, and the one person who knew him.

He wanted to lay his head down on the desk, escape the thoughts now running riot in his own mind. He wasn't getting away from this though. Jirou, at least, was insistent on that.

"Are they just going to ignore it? They can't, we can't go through the next three years with that just being left on their shoulders. We can't all graduate at the end of this and that still be a thing unaddressed. It can't possibly be right to just leave it be."

"I know." It was an almost whine almost groan that came from Kirishima, that rose up from him attempting to melt into his chair. They couldn't leave it be. What was between them… couldn't be left unhealed and poisoning them both for the rest of their lives. That would be the least manly thing of all, to ignore such pain.

"Just inelegantly dumping it on one of them isn't going to help, right?" He sat up properly, attempting to regain his thoughts. A track in his mind was now attempting to form sentences, to come up with a way to broach the topic. You couldn't just go up to one of them and say the other's name, that would be idiotic. You'd need to be clever about it.

"But is either going to change enough to get around to it?"  
"That's not up to us." He was shutting Jirou's tirade down now, but in truth she'd convinced him. He'd do… something, he just didn't know what yet. But it was best left with him now. Who else would be capable of dealing with such a topic? No one else, no way. He knew that.

As Jirou sighed deeply, finally out of steam, he admitted his plan. "Look, I'll say something." It was almost amusing how quickly she focused on him in concern, how quickly she asked if that would be okay. She was scared of it too. He didn't blame her at all. "Just give it some time, okay? They're both still changing. We all are." He'd need to spend a lot of thought on this one, construct the perfect way to approach this. That wasn't easy, he wasn't the best at this level of planning, in general just a 'goes with the flow' 'rolls with the punches' kinda guy. Not this time though.

Not this time.

* * *

"You just gotta talk." "I just gotta talk."

Kaminari's words alongside his own, echoing in his head, drove Kirishima forward. He'd spent a week thinking on this and utterly, completely, horrifically failed to come up with even one ounce of cleverness or delicacy with which he could broach the subject.

So he decided to do things his way.

"Hey."

Bakugou was by himself today, a field of stone set up by Cementoss outside for students to practise within. Quirk honing was the thing right now, and Bakugou was one of those most focused upon it. Because of course he was. Guy never stopped.

It was eerie to see him look up, spot Kirishima, and not so much give a smile but definitely nothing resembling animosity. A nod of greeting. Kirishima was one of the very few people Bakugou would do such for.

"Working hard?"

"What's it look like?" Still snappy though, of course, but that was just Bakugou. A lot of people would be off-put by that, but Kirishima was used to him. He knew how he talked. This was just him.

"Need a hand then?" Bakugou looked at him with incredulity as Kirishima hardened up his entire body, his Quirk sharpening and strengthening him. Bakugou had already ruined most of the rocks around here, one that didn't go out in a single hit would do him a lot of favours. A fist hit an open palm and Kirishima smiled widely.

"Sure you're up for that?" Bakugou was now wearing a similar wild smile, completely focused on Kirishima now. The last time they'd truly gone at it was during the Sports Festival, where Kirishima had discovered Bakugou could hit way too hard for way too long. He wondered if, after this long, the same was still true.

"You know I am, come and get me bro."

The struggle was brief but savage, lasting only a few minutes but digging a hole into the ground as Kirishima kept directing Bakugou's explosions downwards. Bakugou didn't show anything when he fought besides raw bloodlust, but Kirishima still got the impression he was slightly impressed that he was being countered.

In the end though it was Bakugou's win, one direct explosion to the chest had Kirishima stumble back and hold up his hands. "Okay okay, you got me, I don't want to take another of those." Man he hit hard, goddamn. Who else could do that? If Iida kicked him maybe, hits from Satou or Shouji at full strength possibly, and then besides that just Midoriya himself. Any of them, Kirishima would need a little more strategy than just bruting through it. Too much power, way too much.

He sat down with a heavy exhale.

Moments later, a hand was outstretched before him. "That's what you get for picking a fight." Bakugou's words didn't match his expression, he had a light and entertained smile to his face, clearly pleased with their match. A bruise was forming on his chin where Kirishima had socked him once, the only really good hit he'd landed. The guy was way too good at dodging. Dammit.

His hand clasped Bakugou's own. "Yeah yeah, I'll get you yet." This was the way they were, friends despite Bakugou's general nature. Kirishima had found another side to him, still abrasive and violent, but friendly all the same. It was one of the things he liked most about Bakugou, a true self he'd managed to unveil.

He really wished it was only this way.

"Now what's eating you?" Bakugou, for the amount he kept to himself, was disgustingly observant, basically the same as Midoriya in reading people. He could tell in an instant that something was off with Kirishima, and actually asked him about it. Where was this Bakugou for anyone else? Dammit dammit dammit.

"Hey..." he didn't even like saying it, could feel his heartbeat accelerating just venturing onto the topic. He didn't want to. He had to, but he really really didn't want to. Kirishima breathed out an unsteady breath, "what the fuck is up with you and Midoriya?"

The change was immediate: Bakugou's eyes narrowed, his lips curled, and he stared at Kirishima with a mixture of fury and shock. "You..." the word came out of him slowly yet sounding like the hissing of a fuse, and there was a slight shake to him. It was the most frustrating thing Kirishima had ever seen, to see just how Bakugou reacted the moment he was confronted with this.

So he punched him in the face.

Bakugou stumbled back, far less in pain than absolute surprise for Kirishima to have done that. He caught himself, stood back up straight, eyes now wide as could be. He couldn't believe it.

So Kirishima punched him again.

The third hit Bakugou finally caught, struck Kirishima back right in the chest and sent him flying. He hit the ground roughly, groaned, but didn't regret. Just looked up at a livid Bakugou above him. What a goddamn mess.

"Bakugou I just hit you in the face. Twice." Stating the obvious was necessary here, getting the point through the thick skull of his friend. Bakugou continued to stare down at him. "You let me do that. You. The guy who wins everything and I just hit you twice without you doing a thing about it. How does even hearing Midoriya's name fuck you up that badly? What is goddamn WITH you?"

"That's..." to hear Bakugou unable to actually get his thoughts out, Kirishima couldn't believe it. He knew how much Midoriya freaked out around Bakugou, but as it turned out Bakugou when confronted about Midoriya fell apart similarly. What the hell had gone on with them? This was unreal. "That's none of your fucking busin-"

"Of course it's my goddamn business!" He wasn't taking any of that shit from Bakugou, stood himself back up to look him in the face. "You're my friend, ass-face. So's Midoriya. So yeah if you don't like each other that's fine, it's not my place to force that. But this bullshit? What's been going on from the very beginning? You'd best goddamn believe it's my business. How could it not be you idiot?"

Somehow Kirishima got the feeling Bakugou had never had someone talk to him like this before, someone he cared for, in his own weird Bakugou way, call him out for his actions with such anger. He was in shock more than anything else.

"What the hell did he do to you? What did you do to him?" How were they like this? He'd always known Midoriya was a mess, socially anxious, terrified of Bakugou, not used to friendship. All too likely those three things were related, and Bakugou had been the absolute worst person in his life.

But now, on the opposite side, seeing Bakugou completely losing it at hearing Midoriya's name, being unable to even put words together, just to stammer and stare at Kirishima, it was unbelievable. What was between them was even scarier than Kirishima had thought possible, he'd truly smashed the hornet's nest with this one.

He really hoped his Quirk was enough to survive their wrath.

"Fucker." Bakugou sat down heavily on a rock, didn't look at Kirishima at all. Holy shit he wasn't exploding. "Don't know a thing about going easy do you?"

"Neither do you, dumbass." Kirishima wasn't giving an inch, he'd promised to be resolute about this. After completely failing to find even the tiniest scrap of subtlety to work with, he'd chosen to go all in. Now he had to stick to his guns.

Though seeing Bakugou just sitting there not even looking at him was just incredibly unpleasant.

"Bakugou..." "Shut up, I'm thinking."

Kirishima shut his mouth. Bakugou was clearly deep in thought now, rationalising whatever was in his head, attempting to find an answer to the question Kirishima had forced upon him. By the expression on his face, he wasn't having a good time of it.

"Look," Bakugou didn't turn towards him, but did at least sound like he didn't want to unleash murder. Baby steps. "We can talk. Later."

"How much later?" Even just that admission was more than Kirishima had expected, but what Bakugou intended to do before then mattered. He needed to know.

"What, you think I'm going to run away?" Bakugou finally looked at him and he wasn't calm or angry, not panicked or stressed. Kirishima couldn't quite tell what he was feeling. But the expression was so very un-Bakugou that he almost didn't want to look at it. He'd really done it now.

"I don't know what you're going to do right now." That was the truth, this was a completely different Bakugou to any other. How do you predict that when you can't even predict the normal one? Kirishima didn't have a clue.

Bakugou laughed, ever so slightly, and stood up, stepped forward and put a hand on Kirishima's shoulder as he moved by him. It wasn't shaking. Kirishima almost wished it was. "Don't sweat your ass, I'm not going anywhere or doing anything. Treat me later why don't you?"

"Uh... yeah." Bakugou was already walking away, attempting to resume his trademark swagger and failing pretty badly. As he did, Kirishima couldn't help but sit down heavily on one of the remaining rocks in the field and breath out an extremely stressed sigh. That had taken a few years off of his life he was sure.

But Bakugou had said he wanted to talk and that was... more than he'd ever hoped. He didn't know what would come of this, he didn't know what was next.

All he knew was that he'd be there when his friend wanted to talk.

And that was true for if it was Bakugou or Midoriya. Both friends, both cared for.

Whatever might come next.


	18. Uraraka Ochako Faces Her True Feelings

"Ah, he's out training again."

"Just never stops, huh?"

As Ashido and Hagakure crowded around the window, looking out into the courtyard beyond the Heights Alliance common room, Uraraka Ochako did her best not to look. She already knew what she'd see if she did. And she was trying to focus, looking would just set her heart uneasy again.

She needed to think.

"You two could learn something from his dedication, come back here." Yaoyorozu was at least taking charge, drawing them back to the group. They were trying to study! Uraraka really would rather focus on that.

Tsuyu poked her and directed her attention fully back to the tasking they were working through, more study for classes soon to approach once more. When the six of them were grouped together, providing Yaoyorozu had her hands on the reins, working together was pretty good. Although Ashido and Hagakure were always quick to motivate one another for almost anything else. It kept things lively but… again, Uraraka wanted nothing more than to focus on one thing she could keep her mind on. Keep it from wandering entirely.

"We were talking strategy earlier actually," Yaoyorozu and Jirou had been the only two of this group not hanging out at the climbing tree with everyone else today, leaving it to Hagakure to relay interesting events from it instead. "He's all dedicated to figuring out ways to stop us being split apart like at the License Exam."

"It's a good idea," against her own determination Yaoyorozu was immediately swept into the topic, strategy being one of her favourite flavours of talk as well, "We need to be able to combine our abilities to truly exceed in stressful conditions."

"And working together means we can do things we couldn't alone!" Ashido quickly repeated Yaoyorozu's sentence in as many words, earning a confused look from her. Hagakure and Jirou chuckled quietly.

"He's a hard worker." Tsuyu had gone and looked out the window now, the intent of actually doing study solely left with a rapidly losing control of the situation Uraraka. She turned back afterwards and sat down again, integrating into the conversation about strategy Yaoyorozu was leading. The conversation inherited from him…

It wasn't all that rare, really. He was an extremely hard worker, very dedicated, very smart. Amongst the strategists of their class, he was generally one of the most talkative to others, trying to get them involved. She could only respect that, she really couldn't do anything else. Always doing his best, never backing down, it was hard to count the ways she admired and had been inspired by him.

Yet even still, right now…

"What do you think, Ochako?"

Once again, Tsuyu had bluntly interrupted her from her thoughts, leading her to jump in surprise. Now the others were looking at her, expecting to hear something. She frantically scrambled for words.

"Ah, well, I think it's admirable! Deku's always doing everything he can to improve and helping everyone else out too! It's good that he's working hard on strategies too!"

Blank looks in response. Oh noooooo, what had she said? Ashido had the faintest peak of a wide grin oh noooooo.

"I meant about countering separation tactics." Yaoyorozu clarified and showed nothing of her own thoughts. Uraraka rapidly felt her face redden as she looked down. Oh no.

"Should just ask Todoroki to make a big ice platform for us," Jirou saved her, throwing out a suggestion and dragging the conversation back onto the actual strategies. And while she sometimes caught glances from Tsuyu or Ashido – probably Hagakure too if she could see her – Uraraka kept her focus enough not to be caught out losing it like that again.

She needed to get past this.

* * *

Deku was… an inspiration! He was everything she wanted to be, every good thing she imagined in the world of Heroism. Selfless, brave, dedicated to the ideals of Heroism itself: saving others, standing up against Villains, representing a peaceful future for the world to rely upon. Incredible things, almost too incredible.

She hadn't meant to watch the video, really she hadn't. She'd just been… so curious. Deku, Iida and Todoroki, they'd gone and encountered such a terrible Villain, such a horrible person who hurt Iida's brother so much. Yet they'd said little of the encounter in the end, never really spoke of it. Were they okay? Had they been traumatised? She worried about them.

So when the video came out, she thought to herself, maybe I'll see them in it. Maybe I'll be able to understand what happened better.

So Stain's manifesto, deleted and reuploaded constantly, she sat in a quiet room and heard. Heard and felt her own heart sink as low as it could go.

He was… terrible! He was a terrible terrible person who hurt so many who only did good! She should be above this, she shouldn't be reached by his words! She said that, inside of herself, so many times. So often that she'd almost convinced herself it was true.

Then she saw Midoriya, looked at him afterwards, and felt the stable platform beneath her feet crumble. Oh no. Oh no.

A true Hero dedicates themselves to saving others, they seek nothing in return. The world is filled with phonies, people who only desire to serve themselves, to gain position and power through the title of Hero. Those people… they were scum. Those were the words she'd heard.

And those were the words she couldn't escape. She was just like that, she'd chosen Heroism not out of selfless dedication to the world, but solely to create a good life, a life she could support her family with. And so what if it was for others, her heart and mind was still set upon earning just reward for just work. A phony Hero with no true heart for the role.

Oh of course she'd immediately attempted to blow it off, of course that wasn't the case. Stain was a Villain, his words meant nothing. She'd deconstructed it in her mind, isolated the feelings, and felt like she could continue on without them affecting her. Continue on with her life.

Then the next time she saw Midoriya she realised she was looking at someone who truly represented Heroism in the eyes of that Villain, who was everything the world should look towards and praise. And, in spite of herself, she couldn't help but agree.

He was everything right in the world.

* * *

"Uraraka!"

Hearing her name yelled out by him nearly had her lose her focus, but she still kept her eyes forward and hands outstretched. In the depths of Quirk Dodgeball, one moment of lapsed attention would get you punished.

A ball heavily coated in ice was thrown in, propelled by a combination tactic from Todoroki and Kirishima. But all it took was one good hit from Uraraka and it would be under her Quirk, drifting off to join the many others she'd sent up to the ceiling.

She was nearing her limit now, it would soon be time to rain down devastation upon her foes, but not just yet. She had to keep her focus until then.

Deku was guarding her, as attention started to focus more and more upon her. While at first, when she'd begun sending the balls floating upwards, people had avoided her, the realisation that she'd soon unleash absolute chaos now meant taking her out was an absolute priority. Kaminari was stuck to the back wall by balls laced with Mineta's Quirk, while a slightly concussed Aoyama was being dragged off the court by Tsuyu, meaning their numbers were down – compared to the still raring to go ten opposing them. That they were keeping the score relatively even said a lot about the key strategy Yaoyorozu had employed in picks. She was brilliant.

Another explosive throw from Bakugou, another ball deflected by Deku. He was absolutely ensuring her safety now. Of course it was for good strategy, she was the key to their rebound, but even still it felt…

Well, needless to say even thinking that way was distracting her. She needed to focus.

When she gave the heads-up to Yaoyorozu, that was when everything exploded into motion. Tokoyami, Sero and Ojiro immediately hauled themselves up to the ceiling, combining their Quirks to get up there, and pushed the mass of balls Uraraka had built up forward. More shots started being hit towards them while those on the ground covered, but it was too late, and the collection was now directly above Todoroki's team.

Uraraka couldn't help but smile as she released her Quirk.

Aizawa hadn't said a thing about whether or not those falling balls would count, but at this point you wouldn't dare take that risk. Because of that, the group below now had to contend with this rain from above, and while Todoroki, Bakugou and Ashido could easily deal with such assaults, distraction was still rife.

Distraction capitalised enough to swing the score well back into the favour of the Yaoyorozu team.

Combination tactics like that were some of the best features of their class, and Uraraka enjoyed being part of them. Focused like this, she could briefly forget herself, and just take part in the growth and learning necessary. Even if Deku was always nearby, even if he was always looking out for her.

Iida across the field looked at the pair and was focused and intent, devising his own best actions possible. That reminded her of another moment.

* * *

"My apologies but… I refuse!"

They were building teams for the Cavalry Battle, the second act of the Sports Festival. She'd come to Deku in much younger days, even if it had only been a few months ago, and asked to join his team. She trusted him.

Iida was as much a friend to either, but he refused. He knew that together they'd be unstoppable, but he needed to prove himself against Midoriya as much as anyone else. She understood that then.

And even as she stood by the team she'd joined, a little seed of doubt had grown in her heart.

Was she following Deku and relying upon him for everything? Did her own Heroic will pale compared to his? The feelings now forming, were they regret and envy? Did she aspire to surpass him and wish to spread her own wings? At the time, she hadn't been able to express how she felt in a single word. Not a single one.

It took time, of course, to begin rationalising herself, to begin separating how she felt about Deku from how she felt about herself. No-one did her any favours in that time. From Aoyama reading her like a book, knowing she was thinking of and attempting to emulate him to seek victory, to Ashido being the most blatant she could possibly be.

They kept saying the word 'love'. She really wished they wouldn't.

Deku… she remembered the day he took that name on and truly made it his own. Bakugou slung it at him like an insult, while she spoke it with friendship and care. But it was him that took it on as his own mantle and conquered all its meanings, made it solely his own.

She savoured the feeling of the name, short and snappy, and said it happily when speaking to or of him. To say there were warm feelings when thinking of him would not be to lie.

But…

Deku… Midoriya Izuku… he was so many things to her. A friend she trusted in, a person she respected and, in a way, idolised. He did everything with such determination, drive and passion, she found herself wanting to emulate the same just having known him. She knew she wasn't the only one that way.

When he was injured, all too often by his own power, she remembered feelings of distress and concern, wishing there was a way to take away the pain he was clearly suffering. When he overcame his Quirk, began to use it without harming himself, she'd felt her heart soar with joy.

Everything he did… she saw and admired. Everything he was… she wanted to prove herself to. And everything about him… she…

She needed to focus.

Uraraka Ochako was going to become a Hero. A great Hero! Uravity was a name that would have meaning, hearing it would be a relief to those in need! She wasn't sure when those passionate thoughts first took place within her, whether they were solely her own or created by sharing her life with those around her, but they were hers now. She wasn't going to stop. Not for anything.

"Is it love?"

"Do you love him?"

"You're in love."

It's…

She's…


	19. Bakugou Katsuki Considers a Mountain

He was just a pebble.

Just another damn pebble on the side of the road. So then why? Why!?

Bakugou Katsuki wasn't so ignorant or unaware as to call himself subtle, he was direct and to the point in everything he did. Why shouldn't he be? Those around him, too often they bit their tongues and hid their thoughts, not comfortable being their total selves. That's weakness. Lacking even the basic confidence to be your full self, who would trust someone like that to be a Hero? No-one should.

So as he went along, blazing a path towards the future he knew he'd seize with his own two hands, Bakugou shed respect only for those who truly deserved it. Those who showed their true selves unwaveringly. The only ones who stood a chance.

And then one of the few who'd earned that recognition punched him in the face. Twice.

He'd deserved it, unquestionably. When Kirishima called him out he'd lost his focus, and each hit had served as a reminder to not be so distracted again. No matter what an opponent said, letting them unbalance you was a failure. It was a lesson he'd needed to learn.

'Was Kirishima an opponent?'

The thought cropped up in his head and he growled, attempting to stamp it out. He'd promised to talk to him later, but before that he needed to work things out himself. The punching bag he was laying into, even without his Quirk he'd reduce it to shreds before he was properly calmed down again.

He let his thoughts flow.

Deku. All Might. The Villain at Kamino. That member of the Pussycats. A Quirk entrusted. You're next.

Yeah, he had it all figured out now. His knuckles were burning and Bakugou continued to punch.

Why?

He was just a nothing, a Quirkless nothing with no willpower and no hope. So why had this happened? Why him?

And look at the shit he got away with! He won the Battle Trial. He forced that half-and-half bastard to use his full power while Bakugou couldn't even spark a single flame from him. Oh of course he was part of those who came to Kamino. What the fuck was with him?

Why him? Why him...

The bag was groaning, Bakugou's relentless beating affecting it more than him. He couldn't feel it. All he had were these thoughts.

Deku should have been nothing, from the very beginning he should have been nothing. He was never able to do a single thing right, not able to compare to Bakugou in any field. Yet from the beginning, the very goddamn beginning, he'd always held himself like he was.

Why did Deku think so lowly of him? Why did he believe Bakugou wasn't capable? He didn't need his worthless help, didn't need his outstretched hand. It was an insult, each and every time, to have it offered to him. How dare he look down on him so.

And now! Now look at the fucker! Oh he had that flashy Quirk with power that outstrips everyone else, oh he's so confident and happy! Like everything he'd ever wanted has come his way, like all his dreams are coming true! Fuck that!

He didn't intend the explosion, but the punching bag was now missing its bottom half. Annoyed, Bakugou turned to another.

Why did All Might pick him? What was so good about him to earn that choice? This shouldn't be how it is, Deku shouldn't be like this. But he was, and the reason Bakugou couldn't tell. Couldn't even begin to comprehend.

Deku had been nothing from the very beginning, incapable and weak. He wasn't a Hero, he wasn't anything like the sort of person who could become a Hero.

But now he was on his way, jostling shoulders with Bakugou. Why should he have to share his path with that useless nerd? Why, to this day, did it still surprise him as much as it did?

What was goddamn with him?

His wrist groaned and Bakugou finally stopped his assault, sweating heavily. He should be careful about cleaning up, wouldn't want an untoward explosion. He snarled at the ground, eyes looking downwards. Goddammit. Goddammit!

* * *

"So we've got the Hero License exam soon, I'm feeling pretty good about it all things considered. I wouldn't be surprised if all twenty of us got it."

"Mhm."

Kirishima was attempting to make small talk, the two eating over skewers. Apparently this was a place soy-sauce face liked to go, but that didn't really matter to Bakugou. Food was good, at least.

Dude looked downright awkward, a complete one-eighty from how he usually was at all times. Goddamn idiot, he brought it up and now he couldn't follow through? He was better than that. Bakugou glowered at him until he spoke.

"Look," Kirishima finally broke the silence, actually went ahead on the topic. He'd gone all blustery up to Bakugou and hit him in the goddamn face, he was going to speak. Bakugou wouldn't accept anything less. "It's total bullshit, okay?"

Yeah, that was about the kind of line Bakugou would expect out of him, especially about this. Pretty much the entire class was pissed at him, in one way or another, because of Deku. But not one of them ever had the balls to actually go up to Bakugou and say something. So why should he care about anything they didn't believe in enough to say? He didn't. He never had.

Kirishima was different.

"You've gotta take responsibility for this."

"Ah?" The questioning noise was as aggressive as Bakugou usually was, but the red-haired teen before him didn't back down in the least. Good. Bakugou would have been really pissed if he cowarded out here.

"Midoriya's messed up, man, and I know it probably wasn't just you back then, but it was still probably a lot you, wasn't it?" God, Kirishima looked so sad, what was his problem? Guy seemed like he was afraid the entire world was going to fall apart on him. Yet he was still going forward. Good backbone.

Bakugou took a hefty bite out of the skewer he had. "What do you want out of me?" He didn't really know, honestly, this entire topic had been sprung on him without a hint of preparedness. Everyone had a blind spot, a weakness they couldn't escape, one they had to be wise enough to understand and prepare to be targeted. As it turned out, Bakugou's was Deku. His mistake. So he was glad, in the end, Kirishima had punched him in the face.

He'd have been carrying a target he wasn't even aware of if he hadn't took that hit.

"Fuck," the breath shot out between Kirishima's clenched teeth, his food a lot less eaten than Bakugou's. He was stressed, you could tell that just looking at him, compared to Bakugou who seemed – mostly – calm. No doubt this was freaking out Kirishima further. "You know that he was the way he was at the start of all of this, scared of even being spoken to, because of how things were before. You know this."

"Do you?" What did Kirishima know? He hadn't been there. What had Deku told him? Honestly, knowing him, nothing. Deku wouldn't say a goddamn word about all of that.

"Bakugou..." god, stop looking like a kicked puppy, it didn't work on him. Bakugou stared at Kirishima and expected him to finish his goddamn sentence. It took too long as it did. "In your own eyes, how much do you think you messed him up?"

Okay, now Bakugou had to take a moment to think. He and Deku... they'd known each other from the very beginning, grown up side by side. Deku had fallen in behind Bakugou's step, because of course he did, everyone did, but then he... he... goddammit.

"Bakugou?" The scowl on his face had Kirishima worried. Bakugou waved him off.

Deku kept doing this thing, where he dragged Bakugou down. Every time Bakugou rose up, every time he expressed himself, Deku was there bringing him back down. He was like a chain tying Bakugou to the earth, preventing him from becoming the rising star he knew he was meant to be. He'd hated that. Hated him.

So Bakugou snapped back and pushed him down each time, pushed him away. The two were always like that, always too close for comfort, always attempting to escape the other and failing. It had been like that all this time, even when Bakugou came to U.A.

Deku... he was just meant to be a pebble on the side of the road, but instead he'd become a mountain that Bakugou could never overcome. Why had it become this way? Why had he been chosen? Bakugou still couldn't understand, couldn't parse what in him was worth All Might's choice. Fuck. Fuck!

"Hey!" Kirishima's hand roughly pushed Bakugou's shoulder, Bakugou's own hand rapidly smacking his away. The two stared at one another for a moment, each annoyed, before Bakugou breathed out and looked down. Goddammit.

"I'm going to talk to him." Not before the exam, he couldn't afford to let his focus waver then, but after... it was going to be difficult. Even looking at him pissed Bakugou off, reminded him of every failure, every inability to overcome that mountain. But they had to talk. Now that Bakugou was so sure, he couldn't walk away from this.

He needed to know.

Kirishima was looking at him like he'd just offered to absolve all pain and suffering in the world, absolute relief marred with the slightest hint of worry given it was Bakugou who said it. Goddamn idiot sticking his nose into other people's businesses. Never knew when to leave well enough alone.

Well...

Bakugou didn't hate that.

* * *

"Where the hell's my name?!"

Fuck. FUCK. Unbelievable, the Provisional License Exam, he'd seriously... failed? He hadn't been good enough? What was WITH that? Goddammit!

Wait...

Bakugou's eyes focused, scanned row after row of names. No. No way. That... that useless nerd he... Deku did...

It was lucky Kaminari immediately took to teasing him, breaking Bakugou from this cycle of thoughts. Lashing out ineffectually at others was a better use of this fury than letting it mount, he needed to focus through it. Breathe. Like hell this is the end.

Like hell.

* * *

All Might was the ultimate apex of Heroism, the mountain Bakugou had set his eyes upon. If he could surpass the Hero who never lost, who overcame every battle without fail, then he would become the new peak of the world, the highest of the high. For someone like Bakugou Katsuki, that was an unquestionable goal. He wouldn't settle for anything less.

And everything else along the way was just pebbles on the side of the road. Or so he thought.

But there was another mountain, another holding him back. Before he could surpass All Might, he had to surpass another. Another who, from the very beginning, he'd believed was nothing. Only saw as a pebble, never parsed as a mountain. With such a glaring blind spot, was it any wonder he couldn't make progress forward? It wasn't. It really wasn't.

Deku, he was the one holding Bakugou down. If he didn't surpass Deku, he'd never be anything. How had it taken truly this long to see it, to understand that the one he'd always thought the least of was the one most capable of stopping his march?

Honestly he still didn't, he just couldn't see it. The facts were clear, Deku had his Quirk, passed to him by All Might's choice, and had surpassed Bakugou – won in battle, gained his License while Bakugou had failed – it was all too obvious. Yet Bakugou still couldn't understand.

He had to know.

Whatever had come before, it was time to face it all and redefine. He needed to, without fail, understand exactly what Midoriya Izuku was.

He'd spent far too long ignoring the mountain right before his eyes.

"Hey!" Midoriya flinched, goddammit, even seeing that reaction pissed him off. Why is someone who seems so weak so much more? "Come outside after."

The room was distracted, no-one else heard this, no-one else knew. Tonight they'd settle this. He'd know for sure.

He'd finally face the mountain before him.

"It's about your Quirk."


	20. Midoriya Izuku's Life Has Changed

Midoriya Izuku's life has changed.

In the morning sun light filters through the curtains of his room, set on the second floor of Heights Alliance. He rolls over, bedclothes shift, and his eyes open. Across the room his gaze settles upon one of many representations of his idol, his saviour, the one who gave him the chance to be everything he wanted to be. The words come unbidden, and Midoriya says them gladly as he looks into the statue, the poster, the photo.

"Thank you."

The day begins.

Noises come from a bird cage on the veranda outside, the parrot within expecting a treat. Midoriya feeds it, then prepares to dress himself. It is time to face a new day. He turns his attention down to a small bed at the foot of his own, a kitten curled up within. He'd been caring for it the night before, as he only had the bird on hand at the moment. It was still asleep. Cute.

A knock on his door draws his attention and it's Kouda, coming by to check on his guest. The animal rescue services Kouda has taken on, spread throughout his class, keeps him busy visiting everyone, but no-one really minds. The two spend a few minutes checking up on the kitten, Kouda assuring Midoriya he'd be taking it on to a shelter later that day. This was good. He smiled and continued on outside his dorm.

The smell of cooking fills the common room, Satou hard at work within the kitchen. Occasionally he decides to do breakfast of his own volition, at which point everyone falls within his pace and waits for him to do his thing. No-one ever complains.

"Midoriya, g'morning!" A wave from him is all there's time for, Satou is busy preparing a whole host of platters. Serving them all at once is important, and he has to keep a lurking Kaminari and Kirishima at bay while he goes. Never patient enough, those two.

As a muffin floats off a tray behind his back Midoriya can't help but chuckle, accidentally giving the invisible Hagakure away. Satou rounds on her with a scandalised yell, but the muffin is already fleeing down the hallway. He's a little too slow, trying to catch her for once so she doesn't get in the habit of always winning when it comes to pinching food, and he disappears on the chase for just a minute.

"Deku!" Uraraka's yell causes him to turn, seeing her waving from the table she's sitting at with Iida. Sticking her other arm out in front of Iida's eyes, she changes her hand to a thumbs up and nods once. Well then…

Moments later he's placing the entire tray of muffins on the table, Uraraka, Kaminari and Kirishima equally digging in and congratulating him. Iida seems ready to complain, but Uraraka pops a muffin right into his mouth and that's it for him. You can't complain with Satou's cooking on hand. You really can't.

The morning goes on.

Ojiro fetches those in the class that do training with him, Hagakure and Midoriya head out, followed by Kaminari, Kirishima and Sero. Whichever of those three actively takes part and which messes with the others of that trio differs each time, but it's never too bad. They all enjoy the time spent together.

It's a busy day though, barely is training done before Iida arrives on the scene. He had cleaning duty earlier, but now is ready to go out for a run, invites those who'll join him to come with. It's only Midoriya, Ojiro is too busy wrangling his more playful students, while Hagakure is just enjoying the show, so the two set off and run.

The grounds of U.A., hatchery of Heroes, are large, more than enough to accommodate all the brewing legends within. Lapping that, the first time took Midoriya hours. Not today though, today it'll take three rounds before he's even ready to slow.

When he and Iida have returned to the dorms, cleaned themselves up after their run, they're greeted by a showdown between Jirou and Kaminari. Ever since they collaborated to set up a sound system in the common room, every day has been a battle between them for control over it. Jirou chooses paper and Kaminari rock. Control swings her way for today.

Music mixes with lunch, more than enough left over from Satou's cooking earlier that – combined with a few bits and pieces from the fridge – everyone feeds well. Ashido and Hagakure pounce on Uraraka, dragging her away after she's done eating, leaving Midoriya sitting with Iida still. Shouji, Tsuyu and Mintea phase into the conversation, join them at the table, and they talk, for much lies in the days ahead. Much they need to be ready for.

Mineta wants some evaluation over his new special moves. Tsuyu continues to drop hints about what she's developing, but never quite gives it away. She's proud of it. Shouji helps the conversation flow, speaks occasionally but ensures there's never a quiet moment. They talk.

It takes Tsuyu remarking on her tasking for the day to remind Midoriya he's late for his, sending him rushing off and leaving the four behind to continue the conversation. Aoyama is already halfway done with his work cleaning the baths, but his work consists of adding flair and sparkle, not so much cleaning. The smell of scented candles is rich in the air, flowering vases set at key points. Midoriya honestly has no idea how he makes such things appear, but Aoyama seems to have a gift for it.

Cleaning is mindless work, leaving Midoriya's own free to roam. Aoyama takes to wrangling it, giving advice on ways for Midoriya to improve his own style. He dispenses those freely to whoever listens, though often Midoriya is one of the few who does. If that's politeness, friendship, or genuine interest, Aoyama doesn't seem to mind. He just likes to be able to talk.

When the job's done the afternoon is here, and Midoriya returns to the common room to find a new scene. There's tension everywhere, focused most intensely around a table and the five sitting at it. Arbitrating is Yaoyorozu, Todoroki and Tokoyami set against Bakugou and Ojiro. The game's unclear, but the expression on Bakugou's face says he's losing.

Midoriya catches Ojiro's eye, makes a gesture of support and 'don't give up', only to immediately have Bakugou yell at him not to distract his teammate. Kacchan never really misses a beat, does he?

He's shuffled off before the scene turns ugly, Sero calling him to come help outside. This scene's a little more entertaining, though no less focused; Shouji's busy holding four floating classmembers by their feet while Uraraka loses her lunch nearby. She'd overdone her Quirk, but that wasn't knocking it out and she wasn't in a condition to undo it right now. Whoops.

Ashido seems to be having the time of her life, insisting Sero wrap his tape around her so that Shouji can let her go and play in the air. Mineta, Iida and Aoyama are all slightly less keen to be let go, happy enough for Shouji holding onto them. What a scene.

The answer's obvious, Midoriya solves it in a moment. While Shouji pulls Mineta down to ground level, Mineta can attach an orb to it, and Sero can wrap him with tape and stick its end to the orb. That'll keep these student balloons anchored a little closer to the ground.

Ashido continues to complain until Sero gives up and lets her have her mid-air joyride. She loves it.

Eventually Uraraka's back on her feet, Tsuyu having spent the past minute rubbing her back. Quirk released, everyone drops, Sero and Shouji catching the suddenly falling Ashido between them.

Most of the class had come outside to see this show, raised voices momentarily heard from the open door as they exited. Midoriya can only guess the game was not going well.

Still, with this many outside, they just hang out and chat for a bit, enjoy the afternoon light. It's natural to move to the trees they climb, arrange themselves all up and down it, so that's what they do. Another day amongst the branches.

He chooses to climb up high today, branches more often occupied by either the most energetic or most skilled at climbing. Jirou's hanging out at the base as he sets his hands into the branches, offers a wave as he goes by. Midoriya misses her then elbowing Kirishima in the side and whispering something to him.

Sero and Hagakure are at the peak, Midoriya third highest after them, with Ashido and Tsuyu just a little below. Uraraka's staying grounded as her stomach was still queasy, poor thing.

His favourite topic is strategy and everyone's developing Quirks, but three of the five are more interested in discussing the latest entertainment, talking about movies worth going out to see. That's not bad either, and it's good to plan things not as students but as friends. They'd have to go somewhere after the Provisional License Exam. Celebrate, unquestionably. They had confidence.

Tokoyami's the only one from Yaoyorozu's game to come out and join them, he ascends the tree rapidly, as he does, to sit with Midoriya. Bakugou and Todoroki have gone into sudden death matches apparently, which they've been unable to tie-break for the past ten minutes. At that point he and Ojiro decided to leave them to it.

When the sun begins to descend they return to the building, ready to face the night. It's not long before the Exam, and they need to be ready.

Inside Yaoyorozu sits alone, enjoying a quiet cup of tea. Todoroki retired to his room, she informs those who ask how the game went, Bakugou being convinced he threw a match just to end it instead of competing legitimately. She doesn't give her opinion on whether or not that's true.

Kouda returns soon after the rest, having gone out with Satou earlier to deliver a whole host of animals to a nearby shelter that Heights Alliance has become a sort of staging ground for. There's a tiny puppy resting on his head and Ashido and Hagakure immediately get into a contest over which of them will be looking after it. Somehow Aoyama wins. Somehow.

Dinner's the duty of Ojiro and Kaminari today, but naturally Satou's helping out all the same. Kaminari fries things too often, while Ojiro's cooking skills are fine but lacking the micromanaging necessary to feed twenty.

Study before food, Midoriya sits with Tsuyu, Tokoyami and Yaoyorozu, the four conquering their subjects while others either try and absorb study potential off of them or just hang out and chat.

Todoroki and Bakugou both appear to eat, but the second won't even look at the first right now. Kirishima and Kaminari waylay him, manage to get him into a conversation of their own, and food is served. A meal together.

Time ticks by.

A game of cards where Yaoyorozu is the only one who knows the rules, the others playing with her tasked to figure them out as they go.

A discussion of movies and shows, entertainment in the world. Iida and Ojiro get involved talking about the nature of Quirks being used or ignored in fictional settings.

Special Moves are the rage right now, what everyone's focused on developing. Midoriya finds many want to bounce ideas off of him, and enjoys discussing such with them. Aoyama sits in to help with aesthetic evaluation in addition to Midoriya's strategic.

Kouda brings Yuki down and she gets all the attention, that spoiled bunny.

The night deepens.

Some of their classmates will be up past midnight, while others choose earlier bedtimes. Most of them will choose early awakenings however. Some will just take as much sleep as they can get.

Not the earliest, but by far not the latest, Midoriya turns in. Each day he gives it his all, and in return a good night's rest is needed. He bids farewell to those still downstairs, roughly half the number now, and heads up. Time to rest.

Curtains are drawn, the parrot set to be handed over tomorrow, and Midoriya spends one last moment looking at all the memorabilia around his room, all the symbols of All Might.

Because of him, his life has changed.

And he couldn't be happier with how it had.


End file.
